very small place, and has been repeatedly burnt down. It depends
entirely upon the numerous iron mines in its neighbourhood.
The whole o f Vermeland, with the exception of a small track on
the borders of the Vener, is primitive, and may be said to consist
entirely of gneiss rocks, similar to those which constitute the neighbourhood
of Gotteburg. Here and there there occur beds of mica
slate, limestone, primitive greenstone, &c.; .but none of them, as far as
I could learn, are of any great extent. It is to the mines which
abound in this province- that it owes its chief value. It will be
necessary, therefore, to take a view of these mines, and to mention the
principal minerals that occur in them, as far as they have come to my
knowledge. I shall begin with those in the parish of Philipstad, because
they are the most important.
Pehrsberg is a hill which, from the description I have got o f it,
appears to be composed of a gneiss rock containing hornblende, and
therefore analagous to sienite. On its south-west side there occurs a
bed o f primitive limestone. This hill contains a great many veins of
iron ore; the vein-stones accompanying which, as far as I could learn,
are garnet, calcareous spar, and hornblende. I cannot undertake to
describe each particular vein, as I had no opportunity o f examining
them, and do not know that any accurate account o f them has been
published. The names o f the principal veins are, Stor grufva, Bad-
stuge grufva, Streta, Kammar grufva, Briche grufva, Kofve. The
following is a catalogue of all the minerals that have been found in
these mines, as far as my information goes.
Pyramidal crystals o f calcareous spar (Ch. metastique of Haiiy).
Kammar grufva.
Globular fibrous limestone. Kammar grufva.
Grey and greenish chlorite slate.
Green, semi-transparent serpentine, with layers of asbestus. Sandels
grufva.
Light green asbestus. Sandels grufva.
Dark green, large foliated mica. Stor grufva.
Reddish brown garnet. Stor grufva, &c.
Reddish flesh-coloured hornstone. Stor grufva.
Iron pyrites in druses and octahedral crystals.
Octahedral crystals of iron ore in chlorite. Sandels. grufva, Kran-
grufva.
White and reddish thin"slaty calcareous spar.
Green sparry hornblende.
White and smoke-grey quartz crystals.
Crystallized acanticone (pistazitej.
Sulphuret of bismuth.
The mine of Torskeback was wrought to a considerable extent
during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and
yielded copper and silver in considerable quantity. The ores consist
of galena, and copper pyrites with blende, which almost universally
accompanies galena.
The mine of Nyhyttan was begun to be wrought in the year 1730.
It contains the same ores with the preceding; namely, copper pyrites,
galena, and blende.
The mine o f Nordmark lies about ten miles west from Philipstad.
The mineral which it yields is iron ore. It seems to lie in a rock of
mica slate. Limestone, containing manganese and hornblende, likewise
occurs in it. The minerals which it contains are as follows:
Granular limestone, containing iron and manganese.
Calcareous spar, crystallized in six-sided prisms, terminated by threesided
pyramids (Ch. dodecaedre o f Haiiy), and likewise in pyramids
(Ch. metastique of Haiiy).
Mountain cork.
Black, large leaved mica.
Dark green fibrous hornblendq.
Dark crystallized malacolite (salitej.
Red-coloured garnets.
Dark blue clay, in which were found, in the year 1730, native silver,
oxide of nickel, and iron ore.
There is a peculiar mineral found in this mine, to which no name
has hitherto been given. It was examined, by Assessor Gahn, o f