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I was completely enveloped, a black cap, remarkable
for the size of its horizontal brim and a
bright tin ornament which glittered in the centre : a
large pair of boots, stuffed full of straw, completed
my costume for this occasion. The straw turned
out to he indispensably necessary, for stuffed as
they were with it, these large and ponderous boots
were so inclined to lag behind in every muddy
spot we had to cross, and which, in many parts of
the mine, was ankle deep, that with the greatest
exertion they could scarcely he prevailed upon to
follow my legs. I was also accommodated with a
walking-stick, spiked at the end, as a support to
prevent me from falling, in passing some of the
narrow and slippery places; and, finalR, with my
trowsers well tucked up towards the knee, I sallied
forth into the bowels of the earth, escorted bv the
foreman of the mine, a couple of link-bearers, and
my servant, whose personal appearance, on the
present occasion, so much resembled my own, that
we gazed at one another “ veluti in speculum.”
The entrance into the mine is by an adit of long
and eas}' descent from the external orifice; so gradual,
indeed, th a t carts are driven up and down to
and from the farthest extremity, which is said to
be not less than 450 Norsk fathoms from the
entrance, or 2800 English feet nearly*. The
* The Norsk fathom is six feet, and the Norsk foot is rather
more than the E n g lish—that is to say, 97 feet Norsk are about
equal to 100 E nglish.
greatest breadth in any one part is 190 fathoms,
or about 1170 feet: the height of the passage is
seldom less than six or eight feet, and frequently
twelve or fifteen; and the depth of earth to daylight,
at the extremity of the mine, is stated to be forty-
three fathoms, or upwards of 260 feet. At a short
distance from hence is the largest shaft, to which
the ore is conveyed in carts from the spot where
it is blasted, and hoisted up in barrels to the surface,
by means of a large water-wheel of thirty-
six feet in diameter. The reason for making use
of shafts to hoist up the ore, instead of carrying
it out at the entrance, is to shorten the distance and
gain time. Tiiere are three of these shafts and
wheels above ground, of equal dimensions, at short
distances from each other ; the water that turns
them is led on by means of wooden aqueducts of
rude construction. In addition to the three sheds
in which the wheels are worked, there is a building
where the ore is broken down into small fragments
by large wooden tilt-hammers lifted by cog-wheels,
and cleared from parts of the matrix adhering to
it : there are nine of these hammers. The ore
is the sulphuret of copper, very ponderous and
massive : the matrix, chlorite slate, in which are
imbedded multitudes of garnet crystals, most of
them, however, imperfect and, the foreman told
me, incapable of taking a polish, the correctness
of which I proved in London. I also procured
some beautiful specimens of amianthus, or asbestos,
D 3