BOOK ceived us with great cordiality and politenefs, and accompanied
■ . _ i us over the works.
General Clauffen eitabliihed thefe works in 1756, upon the
expectation of a Ruffian war, when the government was but
fcantily fupplied with military itores. He fixed upon this
fpot as the moll convenient for water to turn the mills;
gave in his propofals to government, which were inftaotly
accepted, and completed the works, notwithllanding numerous
obflacles.
We embarked with the general upon a canal, which forms the
communication between a fmall lake, and the Ifefiord, or bay of
the fea. This cut was begun in 1717, by command of Frederic
the Fourth, in order to prevent the inundations of the lake from
overflowing the royal eilates j and from thence the place was
called Fredericfwerk. It was finiihed in 1720, but as the foil
was a light land, and the banks were cut in a perpendicular,
and not in a Hoping direction, they fell down, and choaked the
canal for a fpace of 500 feet. The general found it therefore ne-
ceffary to new form the canal. He cut through feveral parts
above 70 feet in depth, Hoped the banks, covered them with
earth, and in fome places with fea-weed, fattened by means of
the branches of fir, in order to prevent the fand from being
drifted away. He then planted the Hopes with willows, alders,
elm, and oak, which he was obliged to water every day for a
year. By thefe means the plants thrived, and now clothe the high
banks to the edge of the water.
In
In the fame manner he has planted the adjacent country for CH
the fpace of feveral miles, which was either a morafs, or covered 1— -
with drift fand. Frederic the Fourth had in vain endeavoured to
fertilize this walte; for when he thought he had fucceeded, the
fand in one year drifted over many miles ; and m fome places, to
the alloniihing height of 80 foot. General Clauffen, however,
has fucceeded, and has ihewn that ingenuity is of more avail than
the power and riches of abfolute fovereignty. By fixing the
fea-weed into the ground with the fir branches, he has rendered
the foil liable, and has fertilized, at great labour and expence, a
defert of feveral miles. Thus, a traCt of country, which before
only fed two and thirty cows, now yields, befides a large quantity
of wood for fuel, in a favourable feafon, above 500 loads of
hay.
At the extremity o f the canal, we turned into another formed
entirely by the general. It was cut through quickiands,
and the banks Hoped and planted like thofe of the former.
He employs at prefent only 340 men. All the workmen are
his own peafants, who of courfe labour at a reduced price. He
has built for their habitation rows of houfes with rude Hones
walhed with llucco, made of equal quantities of the pounded fco-
ria of iron, of quicklime, and chalk. He has found from experience,
that this ilucco is extremely durable. His works confiil
of a foundery for cailing cannon, both copper and iron, and
balls, making faltpetre and gunpowder, with bake-houfes and
breweries. He boafted, that in 1772 he furniffied the army of
Norway
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