the following account o f him. His name was Mr. Jarta, he was horn a
baron; but about twelve years ago, in a fit o f enthusiasm for the cause
o f liberty, he threw up his title at a meeting o f the Diet, and this renunciation
o f nobility was afterwards confirmed by the King. After
the late revolution, his great and Well known abilities induced his
countrymen to raise him to the office of Secretary of State; but his
violent temper did not suit him well for the opposition which he encountered
from his Colleagues in office. At last, when the Swedes declared
war against Great Britain, a measure which he had strenuously
opposed, be threw up his situation in disgust, and retired to Fahlun,
where he lives upon a very deader income. His abilities are o f the
highest class, his character excellent; nothing is found fault with but
the violence o f his temper. What a figure would such a man have
made in the British House of Commons. Like the first Earl of
Chatham, nothing could have prevented him from rising to the highest
situations in (he State. But in an aristocracy like Sweden, it is snot so
much abilities and integrity, as cunning, and address, and family influence,
that secure success in the political career.
There is a cabinet of minerals belonging to the Mining Company o f
Fahlun. It was left by' ¡legacy in 17 80 to the gold mine ¡of Adelfors,
in Smoland, by Count Nils Bjelke. But that ¡mine ceasing to be
wrought about that time, his widow got the will altered, and gave, the
cabinet of minerals to the Mining Company of Fahlun. I spent about
four hours looking over this cabinet, i t contains a ¡considerable number
o f specimens, some of them very fine; but they have not been well
preserved. They are in general dirty - nor could I perceive any systematic
arrangement in the cabinet. Every thing seems just to have
been placed where room could be most conveniently found for it. Such
¡cabinets, i f they were properly arranged, and i f those young miners,
Who felt any desire to ¡make themselves acquainted with mineralogy,
had free access to them, would be o f considerable service to the country.
But locked up as they are at present, .and open only to the eyes
(of strangers, who make a visit to Fahlun o f a few days, they can hardly
he considered as o f any use whatever.
Not having written down upon the spot a list of the minerals found
at Fahlun and the neighbourhood, but trusting entirely to my collection
of these minerals, which I received from Assessor Gahn, and which
was very complete, I cannot be expected to give from memory a very
accurate detail. But as it would be improper to omit noticing the
peculiar minerals o f Fahlun in this place, I shall give the best account
o f them that I can.
1. Large dodecahedral crystals o f garnet used formerly to occur
abundantly in the mine o f Fahlun. They are still found, but in much
smaller quantity. Almost all the very large garnet crystals to be seen
in the mineral cabinets o f Sweden have come from Fahlun. Such
crystals, being well known to mineralogists, require no description.
2. Complete octahedral crystals of iron ore, o f a considerable size,
occasionally occur in the Fahlun mine; but they are scarce, and sell at
a comparatively high price. The only way o f procuring them is to
buy them from the miners, who sometimes make collections o f them.
I bought some in this way, at the rate o f about two shillings sterling
each.
3 . The mineral called automalite, by Ekeberg, was discovered by
Assessor Gahn, in the year 1805. The crystals o f it were scattered
through a kind of greenish chlorite, which had been taken out o f Eric
Matt's mine. It was immediately analysed by Ekeberg, and the result
o f his analysis published in 1806, in the first volume o f the Af-
handlingar i Fysik, Kemi och Mineralogi Ulgifne af IE. Hisinger, och
J. Berzelius. The result o f the analysis was curious. The mineral
possessed the characters of spinell; hut it contained about one-fourth
of its weight o f zinc. It was this anomaly which induced Ekeberg to
invent the term automolite, and apply it to this mineral; as if it were
a kind of deserter from the order of zinc minerals, to which from its
constituents it ought to belong.
I have examined this mineral with a good deal o f care, and have
little doubt that it is in fact a spinell, containing some sulphuret o f zinc,
mechanically mixed through it. That the zinc is in reality derived
from sulphuret of zinc, is pretty obvious from the result o f Yauquelin's
2 G