LAST STUDENT YEARS 
93 
mines and studying the smelting; he also visited 
certain mines in the district, and in his notes names a 
dozen facts which appealed to him as remarkable. 
His impressions he summarized thus: 
Nothing is 
more splendid 
than 
Steelwork; 
> j 
extensive 
Copper smelting; 
>> 
rational 
Ironwork; 
> > 
speculative 
j) 
Stiernsund; 
}> 
rich 
Norberg; 
) j 
horrid 
Fahlund [Falun]. 
The last named concerns the mines exclusively. 
He went down into them, and describes his sensations. 
“ The whole way was by wooden ladders, mostly in 
twenty steps apiece, and perpendicular. Two ladders 
were often fastened together, which swung about, 
some slanted, but most were upright. The ways 
[drifts] were narrow every way, so that one had to 
stoop or go on all fours, often striking one’s head 
against the roof, which showed crystals of vitriol, or 
were entirely black; it blew cold and strong till near the 
bottom, so that a windmill could work. Out of the 
mine a constant smoke ascended. Never has a poet 
described a Styx, nor a theologian a hell so awful, as 
that seen here, for upward rises a poisonous, stinging, 
sulphurous smoke, which taints the air all round, and 
so corrodes the ground that no plants can grow in the 
neighbourhood. Below, it is unspeakably dark, never 
shone upon by the sun, chambers filled with steam, 
dust and heat, till at 450 ells deep [876 feet] one 
reaches the solid hard earth. Here are more than 1,200 
sun-fugitives, condemned to metalliferous work. The 
drifts are dark with soot, the floor of slippery stone, 
the passages narrow as if burrowed by moles, on all 
sides incrusted with vitriol, and the roof drips corro¬ 
sive vitriolic water. The miners are naked to their 
waists, with wool respirators over their mouths to pre¬ 
vent inhaling smoke and dust. Sweat pours from them 
like water from a bag.” 
