DLE 
bricius was there, the manufacture was. 
fearce fufficient to fupply the demand. 
The quantity of fteel made here is not 
much more than ten tons annually. It is 
much inferior to the Swedifh fteel. 
From Eichsiors to Rafteen, a difance 
af between nine and ten miles, our tra- 
veilers pafled in a boat along the Inke 
Eckern ; enjoying a noble profpect of 
water, rocks, and fields in good culriva- 
tron. - 
On the 25th they arrived at Kongtherg, 
an agreeable town, the moft remarkable 
fey its mines of any in Norway. It flands 
en a broad plain, and is interfe&ted by the 
niver Lowe. Its buildings have nothing 
friking. The fireets are unpaved. The 
conmaiiion of government for the manage- 
ment of the Norwegian mines has its feat 
here. The whole number of the inhabi- 
tants of the town may be about t0,co<, 
@nietiy miners, artifans, and fhopkeepers. 
The {oil round the town is fandy, and fo 
barren, that nothing but the moft obfti- 
nate indufiry could make it yield {uch 
exops as the inhabitants procure from it. 
‘The river which interfeéts the town has 
fevcral abrupt falls in that part of its 
eourfe, The filver mines of -this place 
are til cf great importance, although the 
expenee of working them have lately ex- 
eceded the profit. They were difcovered 
mn the year 1623: they afford native fil- 
wer in the larsef maffes, and filver-ore 
in the greateft abundance, of any mines in 
Europe: they give employment to four 
thoufand miners, and annually yield fil- 
ver to the value of three hundred thou- 
fand crowns. The yearly lofs amounts 
to near fixty thonfand crovns. The 
yoafting-furnaces, and works for wafhing 
the pounded ore, are large, and in the 
Hungarian fafhion. The riche& with 
the pooreft ores, when roafied, pounded, 
asd wathed, cre {melted tcgether, with an 
addition of lime-ftone fer a flux, Lead is 
not added til the metal is juft on. the 
point of running in fufion. The fur- 
naces are blown by fmail bellows, moved 
by water. .A wooden fpout, in an hovi- 
zonial p:fition, conveys the water into 
an. ther fpeut, of which the pofition is 
perpendicular. Vhrough this {peut the 
water falls into a ton, ugona flone ihat 
fills the, veffel to one-third cf its depih— 
The water, after falling with violence 
upon this fiome, runs out at an aperture in 
the vcif-1; »hle the air parted from. the 
water, by the viclenee of its fall, rethes 
though a pepe that opens into the fur- 
pace, and acts with the efiect of a bel- 
lows upon is heat-and flame. Taele 
1 
Travels in Norway by F. C. Fabricius. 
mines being uncommonly free from damp- 
(fan. 1, | 
nefs, the miners are not particularly un-' 
healthy, The difeafts. moft frequent are 
apoplexy and con'umption. 
Our travellers, on the. 26th of June, 
examined the mines of Prince Charles, 
Oldenburghaus; Gottefhulfe in der Noth, 
and Ellegrube. They are all in one 
mountain, which extends in a direc- 
tion from north to fouth: the fiiver is 
found only in certain crofs-veins: the 
rock is blafted with gunpowder, and the 
veins are opened with a pick and a ham- 
mer: the rock is fo hard, that there is no 
need of weoden-work for its {upport.— 
The miners work fome by the febicht of 
fix hours, others upon arrangements of a 
different nature. The lead ufed to pu- 
rify the filver, is procared at a confider- 
able expence from England. The min- 
ers receive half their pay in money, the 
other halt in barley, malt, and rye, fup- 
plied at certain moderate unvarying 
prices from the King’s flores. Mr. Fa- 
br.cius procured a few {pecimens of the 
filver ore, which he has fince depofited in 
the Cabinet of Natural Hiltery in the Uni- 
verfity of Kiel. The working ef the filver- 
mine atKongfberg is unconnected with that — 
of the other mines of Norway,which belong 
vot to the crown, but to private perions. 
A {chool for the inftru tion of miners was 
inftituted here in the year 1757: Dr. 
Becker, phyfician tothe mines, reccived, 
upon the occaficn, a {mall additicn of {a- 
lary, for which he was required to give 
lectureson mineralogy and chemiltry. The 
practice has been continued by his fuc- 
cefiors. A confiderable collection of mi- 
neral fpecimens had been alio made: but 
inthe year 1776,-the-buidings of the 
{chool, the collection of fpecimens, and 
the library, were accidentally dettroyed 
by ‘fire. “Fhe totsl produce ef ‘thefé 
mines in filver, fiom 1623 to the end of 
the yearn 1792, "was 25,134,026 rix-dol- 
lars. . 
On the 28:h of June, Mr. Fabricius and 
his friend left Kongfoerg, and continited 
their journey, through a pleafing and po- 
pulous valcy, to the town of Eger, on 
river Dramm:n, In a traét of no 
great ex‘ent, there ere forty-four law- 
miuls, wach furnith annually 535,00e 
planks of timber for exportation. The: 
mines, and the conveyance of merchan- 
dizey particularly of gram from Diammen 
to Kongfberz, afford employment and 
means of fubfiftence to many of the in- 
habitants of this valley. ‘ They maintain 
a number of horfes for the ufes of car-. 
riage ; and moit of the vale is, theres 
foley 
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