CH A P T E R X I I .
ACCOUNT OF FAHLUN.
Description of the Town—Account of the Copper Mine—Manufacture of Copperas—
Sulphur Work—Rocks on the Plain—Surrounding Rocks—Rock in which the Mine is
situated—History o f the Mine—Method of Smelting—Assessor I. G. Gahn—Mr. Jarta
—Cabinet of Minerals—Minerals of Fahlun—Garnets—Octahedral Iron Ore—Auto-
malite—Fahlunite-^—Pyrophysalite—Gadolinite—Tin—Sahlite—New Mineral.
T h e town of Fahlun owes its existence to the copper mine in its
neighbourhood, which is one o f the oldest, and was for many years
the greatest in Sweden. It lies nearly in north latitude 60° 35'. Like
all the Swedish towns, it is very regular, consisting of several parallel
streets, crossed at right angles by a number of others. There are two
churches in the town, one of which is covered with copper. Till I
saw edifices covered both with iron and copper I was of opinion that
the latter metal was much better fitted for that purpose, and would
look much more handsome on a roof than the former. But in reality
the reverse is the case. The copper soon becomes o f a dirty whitish
green, and this colour being in itself disagreeable, and very unequally
laid on, gives the whole an unhandsome appearance, whereas the
iron becomes of a very equal reddish brown colour throughout, and
continues to look exceedingly well. Such a roof lasts a long time,
and is very secure. I wonder it has never been tried in this country,
where iron is so abundant, and so cheap.
Fahlun lies in a small plain surrounded on all sides by low hills. It
is rather more than 30p feet higher than the surface of the sea. It has
several lakes in its neighbourhood, and there is abundance o f water for
all the purposes o f the mine. This water is collected in small lakes,
and is let down in rills o f the requisite size for the different purposes
of machinery and washing the ore. There is likewise a small river
which passes through the town, or rather upon the north side o f it,
running in a south easterly direction, till it falls into the Dal. From
the great quantity of ore usually roasted in the neighbourhood o f the
town it was formerly enveloped in a perpetual cloud o f smoke; but of
late years this has very much diminished with the quantity o f ore extracted
from the mine. Prodigious masses of scoriae lie all about. The
older seoriae have been but imperfectly deprived of the copper which
they contained.
The mine o f eppper ore at Fahlun consisted o f an immense cone o f
copper and iron pyrites placed with its apex downwards. It has been
wrought from time immemorial, and formerly with so little care, that
about 150 years ago the whole works fell in, leaving a great hollow,
still very conspicuous as we approach the mine. Tw o large pillars, or
Tather hills, o f quartz, however, remained unmoved amidst the ruins.
They may be still seen rising through the bottom o f die great excavation
formed by the tumbling in of the mine. For many years galleries
were driven through the old works, and the ore extracted in that manner
; but now the vast heap of ruins has been wrought out, and they
are obliged Jo go deeper for the ore which at present they extract.
The mine is about 200 fathoms deep. The descent is by an easy winding
staircase all the way; so that you may descend to the bottom
without any other inconvenience than the fatigue of going down so
many steps. The galleries are all spacious : none less than 8 feet in
height, and some as high as 30 feet. There are about 600 workmen
in the mine. The ore is extraoted partly by the mallet, partly blasted
by gunpowder. It is extremely poor, seldom yielding more than 14
per oent. o f copper. To the eye, indeed, it has .nearly the appearance
2 F