twenty miles since we left Tunaberg, we found ourselves at Jader,
only twelve English miles from Nykoping, the town which we had
left in the morning. It was necessary to get to Norkoping that night,
which was 64- Swedish miles from Nykoping; so that I was obliged
to travel the greatest part o f this road in the dark. For, owing to the
badness o f the roads, and the badness of our driving, we did not
arrive at Norkoping till eleven o’clock at night.
The roads were very hilly, and appealed as i f they were sandy;
though the darkness o f the night prevented me from ascertaining
whether they were really so or not. The country was a forest, with
beautiful lakes and hills interspersed at intervals, which gave the
prospect, as long as any light continued, an interesting appearance.
We passed by a cannon-foundery in our way, situated in a most
romantic position, by a lake, and finely wooded. Here the road lay
through a long straight avenue o f very fine trees. It was too dark for
me to see what species, though they had somewhat the appearance
o f oak.
During this journey, though the night was very clear and serene,
we passed through different strata of very thick fogs. They were low,
and o f small extent. They had a musty smell, and were confined to
narrow hollows or valleys, beyond which the atmosphere was clear.
There is something connected with the temperature o f the surface of
the earth, in low grounds, which I do not very well understand. It
appears, both from these phenomena o f the fogs, and from many facts
well known to gardeners and farmers, that there is a certain elevation
o f ground where the temperature never sinks so low as it does in those
places that lie at a lower level. For example, if you place a thermometer
on the surface o f the ground at the top of Harrow-hill, and
another at the bottom of the hill, during the spring months, you will
find the temperature much lower at the bottom than at the top of the
hill. Nothing is more common than for the gardens to be destroyed
by a frost at the foot o f the hill, while those at the top escape.
Hence the reason of the low fogs which so often occupy deep valleys
in the spring and autumn, while the higher grounds are clear. The
first facts respecting this curious subject were obtained by Dr. Wilson,
at Glasgow. His curious observations were published in the Philosophical
Transactions; but it is a branch of meteorology almost quite
unexplored; though it is highly deserving of investigation, even in a
practical point of view, independent of the light which it is likely
to throw upon the distribution of temperature, as far as that distribution
is affected by the elevation or depression of the places above
or below the level of the sea.
Besides Tunaberg, there are one or two other places in Soderman-
land which deserve to be noticed, on account of the minerals which
they yield.
One o f the most remarkable o f these is the iron mine o f Uto,
which is situated in an island of the same name, not far from the place
where the bay o f Stockholm terminates in the Baltic. It is a Swedish
mile in length, and about half a mile in breadth. Like the rest of
Sodermanland, it consists o f gneiss rocks, with some beds o f mica
slate, quartz, and primitive limestone containing magnesia interspersed.
The iron ore lies in veins, and the veinstones are principally
quartz, iron flint, and actinolite. The iron ore, as far as I observed
it, consisted o f a magnetic ironstone, which indeed constitutes the
common Swedish ore o f iron. The principal minerals found in this
mine are the following:
1. White and reddish granular limestone. Likewise calcareous
spar, and various crystallized specimens o f the same mineral.
2. Black, coarse scaly mica.
3. Bluish-grey, straight foliated felspar.
4. Emerald-green, transparent felspar, in red granular lime-stone.
5. Red, compact felspaT.
6. Spodumene (triphane o f Hatiy). This mineral was first particularly
distinguished by D’Andrada, and was likewise described by Haiiy
in the appendix to his Mineralogy, under the name o f triphane. In the
mine at Uto it is found imbedded in quartz and in felspar. It occurs
in foliated masses, from which a rhomboidal prism, with angles o f