Taberg. I have no doubt that he derived his information from the
preceding account of Ascanius.
The next writer on the subject is Daniel Tilas, who published his
description o f Taberg in the Memoirs of the Swedish Academy of
Sciences for the year 1757. It contains several excellent observations;,
but having been written before rocks were properly classified, no
inferences can be drawn from it respecting the formation to which
Taberg belongs.
The next person who surveyed Taberg was Napioni. His letter to
Werner on the subject was published in the Miner’s Journal for 1789,
together with some remarks of Werner himself. Napioni was not
able to determine the formation to which Taberg belongs in a satisfactory
manner; but he inclines to the opinion that it is a mass of the
newest floetz trap, impregnated with iron ore. This opinion Werner
likewise embraces.
Hisinger published his Mineralogical Geography of Sweden in 1808.
He considers Taberg as a mass of primitive greenstone impregnated
with iron ore. But he takes no notice o f the sandy basis of the
mountain, which seems to present an insuperable objection to that
opinion. According to him, this ore yields 3 2 L per cent, o f iron; and,
upon the authority o f Bergman, he affirms, that the iron obtained
from it is of excellent quality.
The only other description of Taherg, with which I am acquainted,
was published by Haussman, in 1811. His account appears to be the
result of a careful examination. He adopts the same opinion with
Hisinger, and considers the sand at the bottom as nothing else than
decayed gneiss. I shall giye an abstract of his description, as it contains
several particulars that deserve to be known, and as the work of
Haussman, published in Germany only last year, is not likely to have
fallen into the hands of many o f my readers.
“ The obscurity and contradiction visible in the different descriptions
o f T-berg excited my curiosity to examine it, and I had that satisfaction
on the 28 th of July. The road at first was the same as that
to Bornarp; but we soon left that road on our left hand, and went up
a narrow crooked path, often watered by a small rivulet, which runs
from the foot o f Taberg to the lake at Ionkoping. The mountains
which constitute this valley are not high: they are for the most part
covered with pines and birches, though here and there a ploughed
field occurs. They consist of broad foliated gneiss, similar to that of
the hills at Ionkoping. After some time the road leaves this valley,
and passing to the left, ascends the acclivity o f a hill, and proceeds
along an elevated plain covered with underwood, and containing on it
a small lake. Here Taberg first presents itself to the eyes, overtopping
all the neighbouring hills, having the appearance o f a large,
insulated, long-backed mountain; on the left precipitous and bare,
on the right sloping more gently and covered with wood, and having
a hollow in the middle. A little farther on you come into the valley
which separates the east side o f Taberg from the neighbouring rising
grounds. Through it the rivulet Mansarpa runs; and in it are situated
the huts of the miners. Suddenly the iron mass of Taberg presents
itself to your view, lying in the direction o f north north-west and
south south-east, and in height, according to the measurement of
Peter Elvius, 400 Swedish feet two inches;* or, according to the
estimate o f Tilas, 420 feet above the rivulet of Mansarpa, at its
south-east end. In this part the interior o f the mountain is exposed
hy an almost perpendicular wall of rock, which constitutes the eastern
side of the hill, entirely destitute of vegetation ; and huge masses
of rock, tumbled down, lying at its foot. The other sides o f the hill
are less steep, and are covered with wood. There is a plain on the
top, in the direction of the north north-west, not, however, without
interruption; for there is a valley that stretches itself towards the
north-east, and which gives the hill, at a distance, the appearance o f
being double-topped. Its sides are covered with turf and wood.
From this height a great part of Smoland may be seen, which stretches
itself out under the eye as an immense forest, interrupted here and
* The Swedish foot is nearly the same as the English.
2 p 2