3 8 HILL OF HUNNEBERG. [Chap. II.
man, who had been educated as an engineer, in the house of Mr,
Telford himself.
The country round Trollhatte is beautiful. The village contains
only a few houses, and the only inn in the place has no more than two
or three rooms for strangers. We got a tolerable dinner, and were
much amused by looking over a book kept at the inn, where all strangers
write down their names, and make any additional remarks they think
proper. We found remarks in various languages, Swedish, German,
French, and English. The English remarks were usually sarcastic, and
often improperly so. I shall quote one which struck me on account of
its originality. It was as follows: “ You will find at Trollhatte excellent
wine, meat, bread, and indeed every thing, provided you bring it
along with you.”
From Trollhatte we went to Ny Garden, the seat ot .Peter Bagge,
Esq. to whom we had a letter o f introduction. With him we spent
the night, as we wished to examine the structure of a hill in his neighbourhood
called Hunneberg. I shall give an account of this hill in the
next chapter. Mr. Bagge we found a very intelligent but excentric
man. He had spent several years in England, and spoke the language
quite well.
I shall not attempt a particular description o f the rest o f our journey
through West Gothland. The country was now perfectly level, with
the exception o f a few hills, and was generally so thick covered with
trees that our view was not very extensive, and frequently limited to a
few yards. For the Swedish roads in that part o f the country are never
straight, but wind in a beautiful and varied curve. This fanciful plan
must add considerably to the distances between places. We travelled
for some time along the south foot of Hunneberg. The country was
alternately cultivated plains, and heath scovered with erica vulgaris (common
heath). We reached the lake Yenner at Lidkoping, a small town,
built entirely of wooden houses; but neat and clean, and carrying on a
considerable commerce with Gottenburg. While we travelled along
the margin of the lake our road was a deep sand, and consequently
very heavy and disagreeable. We stopped for the night at Kollangen,
Chap. I I ] OF k i n n e k u l l e — a lu m w o r k . 39
because we wished to devote next day to the examination o f Kinne-
kulle, the most remarkable hill in that part of the country, and interesting
to mineralogists. The result of our observations will be seen
in the next chapter.
There are two manufactures in the neighbourhood of Kinnekulle,
both o f which we had the curiosity to visit. The first is an alum
work, situated at Honsater, upon the north-west side o f the hill. The
alum-slate is brought from beds just in t h e n e i g h b o u r h o o d . This slate
is partly burnt in the open air, and partly employed as fuel fo r evaporating
the alum lyes. ; By this economical process two purposes are
gained: the slate is burnt, and the lyes are sufficiently evaporated. The
burnt slate is put into square pits, o f which they-have twenty-six.
Water is pumped on it, and the whole is well mixed. The liquid by
this means dissolves a portion of alum. This liquid is drawn off into
boilers coated with lead, and boiled down to the requisite consistency.
Then it is let into oblong square vessels, ■ where it gradually
crystallizes. These crystals are dissolved in water, and the alum obtained
in the usual way in a state o f purity. I could not. learn whether
they added any. salt o f potash, or of ammonia to the lyes, to make
them crystallize. I made use of every word -L could think of, for all
the salts employed usually by alum makers for that purpose. But
neither my own ; servant, who was perfectly illiterate, nor the workmen
could understand what I wanted to know. There can be little
doubt that they make use of such salts; as they are employed in all
places that I have ever , heard of except at Tolfa in Italy, because
there the rock itself contains the requisite quantity of potash. The
alum-slate at Kinnekulle seems to contain no pyrites, for I saw no
crystallization of green vitriol in the pits.
The glass-house lies upon the side of the lake Yenner, at a place
called Onez. We were surprised to. find a house intended for such a
manufacture built entirely of wood. But in travelling through Sweden
such things occur every where. The copper founderies at Fahlun are
all wooden, and so are the iron founderies at Osterby. This glass
work was intended solely for making windows. All the articles used