of a coniiderable bulk have been difcovered; and one in particular
which weighed 409 marks, and was worth 3,000 rix-dol-
lars, or £. 600. This piece is. itilL preferved in. the cabinet of
curiolities at Copenhagen..
■ Formerly thefe mines produced annually 350,000 rix-dollars, or
£. 70,000; and, in 1769, even 79,000; at prefent they fel,-
dom yield only from £ . 50,000 to 54,000. .
Formerly above 4,000 men were necefikry for working tha
mines, imelting and preparing the ore; but a few years ago
2,400 miners were removed to the cobalt-works lately efta-
bliflied at Folium and to other mines, and the number is now
reduced to 2,500.
By thefe and other reductions, the expence which was before
eftimated at £.576 per month, now amounts to only £.4,400,
or about £ . 52,800 per annum. Yet even with this diminution
the expences- generally equal, and fometimes exceed the profits.;
Government, therefore,, draws no other advantage from thefe
mines, than by giving employment to fo' many perfons, who
would be otherwife incapable of gaining theirlivelihood, and by
receiving a certain quantity of fpecie, which is much wanted in
the prefent exhaufted ftate of the finances in Denmark.. For
fuch is the deficiency of fpecie, that even at Kpnglberg itfelf
change for a bank note is with difficulty obtained. The miners
are paid in fmall bank notes, and the whole expences are defrayed
in paper currency.
The value of 13,000 rix-dollars, or £ . 2,600 in block iilver,
is
is annually fent to Copenhagen; the remainder of the ore is CHAP.
coined in the mint o f Kongiberg, and transferred to Copen- < — — ■
hagen. The largeft piece of money now ftruck at Kongiberg
is only eight ikillings, or four pence.
September r u Having fat-isfied our curiofity, we departed
from Kongiberg in the afternoon, and directed our courfe to the
cobalt-works at Foifum. We returned to Hogfund; but inftead
of ferrying over the Dramme we coafted that river for a little
way, then turned into Fo rugged a road with fuch deep ruts,
that we very narrowly efcaped being overturned; nor did we
arrive at the place of our deftination till pail midnight. We
had previouily fent forward a peafant to order beds, concluding
to find an inn, or at leaft a peafant’s cottage, wherein we might
pafs the night. To our extreme difappointment, however, we
learned that Foifum, which we had taken for a town, contained
only two or three villages, confiding of fcattered cottages at
fome diftance from each other; and that in the place we Hopped
at there was only the houfe of the infpeCtor of the cobalt-
works. As it was already extremely dark and cold, and at fome
diftance from any houfe where we could be accommodated, and
more particularly as the rroads we juft paifed had proved fo
dangerous, we ventured to knock at the infpeCtor’s door, and to
requeft admittance for two Engliih travellers who were benighted.
The family being in bed, we were for a ftiort time in
anxious expectation for the anfwer; and no knight errant was
Y 2 ever