B o o k ently delightful to attract the traveller’s notice, even if it did not
----> contain memorials of fo great a fovereign as Guilavus Vafa.
Having fatisfied our curiofity at Oernetz, we continued our
journey through a hilly and rocky country, fcantily provided with
trees, but abounding in mines, to Fahlun. As we approached
this town, we were much ftruck with the defolate appearance of
the environs, and the numerous furnaces fmoking and infeiting
the air; while on the other fide the eye was relieved from this
dreary fcene with the view of the lake Run, interfperfed with
numerous iflands.
Fahlun is fituated in the midil of rocks and hills, between the
two large lakes of Run and Warpen. It contains 1200 houfes,
and including the miners, 7000 inhabitants. Excepting two
• churches of hrick, roofed with copper, and a few other houfes
of the fame materials, the buildings are principally of wood,
and of two ftories.
The copper mine, which gives exiitence and celebrity to this
town, is on its eaftern fide. Although the time of its firll difco-
very cannot be afcertained; yet its great antiquity is proved by
its being mentioned in the earlieft records of Sweden, and particularly
in the charter of Magnus Smek, which renews its privileges,
and confiders it as exiiling from time immemorial; from
which we may fairly conclude it mull have been worked eight
or nine hundred years ago.
The mine is private property, and is divided into 1200 ihares j
each
each whereof is worth 150 rix-dollars or £ . 37. ior. Four c h a p .
times in the week the ore is divided in the following manner : . ‘ ,
Eleven equal heaps are formed j eight are dillributed among
eight of the proprietors j the three remaining heaps are fold by
auftion; of thefe, one is appropriated to the repairs of the
works; the fecond to pay the falaries of the miners and the
other workmen j the third formerly belonged to the king; but
has been lately relinquilhed by his majeity, and is now employed
in defraying the expence of making new excavations.
In this manner the ore is equally divided, until the whole
number of proprietors have had their refpedlive ihares, and then
the rotation begins again.
The ore is firfl roafled in the open air in order to deprive it of
its fulphur, and then fmelted, and this operation of roafting and
fmelting is repeated five fucceflive times. It is then brought to
the public office, weighed, and divided in the following manner:
Of twenty parts the proprietors receive fixteen, the crown two
and an half, and the remaining one and an half is appropriated
towards the machinery of the mines, and other incidental ex-
pences. Each proprietor receives at the office a receipt for the
quantity of copper he has delivered in; and this receipt he either
fells, or the copper-is tranfported at the common expence to Arf-
welladt, where it is refined and worked into plates.
The copper is not found in veins, but in great malfes, and does
not extend more than an Englilh mile in circumference. The
matrix of the ore is the faxum of Linnaeus, or rock, and pyrites
o f