there by small lakes. On the north side the eye catches the great
expanse o f the Vetter, and the town of lonkdping at its side.
“ The whole southern precipitous face o f the hill consists o f a solid
mass of magnetic ironstone. Viewed from some distance, you cannot
perceive in it any regularity of structure; but when you ascend the
rock, you soon perceive that it has a particular direction inclining to
the south, and dipping west at an angle o f between 70° and 80®.
These principal clefts are penetrated by other smaller ones inclining to
the north-west, and dipping to the south-west at an angle of between
50° and 6o°. The blocks o f rock which are formed by means o f these
clefts vary in thickness from a foot to several yards.
“ The magnetic ironstone o f Taberg is compact, with an uneven
fracture; but it exhibits very different qualities according as it is more
or less mixed with other minerals. Here and there it is found pure,
in small pieces; but is almost always mixed with hornblende and
felspar. This mixture gives it a peculiar character, by which it may
be distinguished at the first glance from the magnetic ironstone in all
the other mines o f Sweden. It deprives it of part of its lustre, and
gives it a brownish colour, which becomes the stronger the longer the
ore has been exposed to the air. The felspar sometimes occurs in
crystals, and gives the mineral a porphyritic appearance. These
crystals are sometimes large, and are frequently found united in spots
and nests. The felspar is of the common kind; but is distinguished
by a smoke-grey colour, passing into clove-brown.
“ Between the different blocks into which this rock is divided there
are layers of calcareous spar and bitter spar, from the smallest size to
the thickness of several inches. These layers are often separated from
the rock by thin beds o f leek and dark-green serpentine. The serpentine
is sometimes mixed with the calcareous spar and bitter spar, and
there occurs occasionally between these beds a remarkable mineral
called greenearth in Sweden, but to which I have given the name of
picrolite. Its constituents, according to my analysis, are carbonate of
magnesia in combination with silica and some oxide of iron. It exhibits
a concealed, soft, concentric, fibrous texture. It has a twofold
cleavage. Its fracture is conchoidal; its colour dark leek-green, passing
into mountain-green. Internally its lustre is glimmering and
silky, but when scratched by the finger the lustre is waxy. It is
translucent on the edges. Streak-white. Semihard. Difficultly
frangible. Its natural joints are parallel to the sides o f the rock in
which it is deposited.
“ On the eastern acclivity o f the mountain there are several large
blocks of greenstone.
I The ironstone o f Taberg, on the south-east and east side, is quite
irregular; partly from the many loose blocks, and partly from the way
in which it has been blown up by gunpowder. It is more valuable
on account o f its tractibility, and the absence o f every hurtful ingredient,
than on account of the great quantity o f iron which it yields.
This varies from 21 to 32 per cent. In the hopes of finding richer
ore, a shaft was driven into the mountain; but these hopes not being
realized, the labour was soon abandoned. Three distinct kinds of
ore are distinguished; rich ironstone (jarnband), common Taberg
stone, and stone penetrated with fragments o f spar {skat and rispmalm).
Taberg, which has been wrought since the year 1621, supplies all the
furnaces in the district, to the number of fifteen, with ore. That it
will continue to furnish a source o f riches to the latest posterity, must
be evident from the slightest view of'its colossial mass.
“ The valley on the right bank o f the rivulet Mansarpa, as well as
the high ground which is connected with the south side of Taberg,
affords a good opportunity to. examine the rocks with which that
mountain is connected, and furnishes sufficient materials for determining
the formation to which that mountain belongs. All these
rocks consist of gneiss, which is not unlike what one meets with on
the road from Ionkoping, and which is mixed with beds that have a
greater resemblance to mica slate than to gneiss. This variation is the
natural consequence o f the variation in the slaty texture, which is
sometimes thick, and sometimes very thin slaty. In the thin beds I
detected crystals of iron pyrites of an uncommon form. They con
sisted o f rectangular four-sided prisms, terminated at the ends by