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€oxn’s TRAVELS IN NORWAY. 367
that place, Having ferried over the Dramme at Hogs-fund, we quitted this fmiling
valley, and pafling among hills and rocks, and over ftony roads, did not, till the dufk
of the evening, reach Kongfberg, celebrated for its filver mines, the produce of which
has been confiderably exaggerated by molt of the travellers who have publifhed on this
fubject. .
Kongfherg ftretches on both files the river Lowe, which, in its courfe through the
town, falls in a feries of {mall but picturefque eataradis over the bare rocks. The crags
which border. the town are in fome parts naked, in others elothed with wood, and inter-
mixed occafionally with flips of corn and pafture; but although there are a few agree-
able and fertile fpots, yet the prominent features of the circumjacent fcenery are rugged.
nefs and horror. Kongfberg contains about one thoufand houfes, including the miners,
and fix thoufand inhabitants. We were accompanied to the mines, which he two miles
from the town, by a merchant who fpoke Englith, and obligingly ferved as our in-
terpreter. ;
‘Thefe mines were difcovered and opened during the reign of ChriftianTV. Six-and-
thirty mines are now working ; the deepeft, called Sexen-Gottes in der North, is fix
hundred and fifty-two feet perpendicular. ‘The matrix of the ore is the /axwm of Lin-
nus; the filver is extracted according to the ufual procels, either by fmelting the ore
with lead, or bypounding. Pure {filver is occafionally found in fmall erains and in
{mall pieces of different fizes, feldom weighing more than four or five pounds. Somes
times, indeed, but extremely rare, mafles of a confiderable bulk have been difcovered,
and one in particular which weighed 4cg marks, and was worth 3000 rix-dollars (600l.);
this piece is fill preferved in the cabinet of curiofities at Copenhagen.
Formerly thefe mines produced annually 70,000l. ; and in 1769, even 79,000l. 5 af
prefent they yield only from 50,0001. to 54,0col. Above 4,000 men were neceflary
for working the mines, {melting and preparing the ore; but a few years ago, two
thoufand four hundred miners were removed to the cobalt works lately eftablithed at
Fofflum, and to other mines, which has reduced the number to two thoufand five hun-
dred. By thefe and other reductions, the expence, before eftimated at 5,76ol. per
month, amounts to only 4,400l. or about 52,80ol. per annum. Yet even with this di-
minution the expences generally equal, and fometimes exceed the profits.
Government, therefore, draws no other advantage from thefe mines, than by giving
employment to many perfons, who would be otherwife incapable of gaining their liveli-
hood, and by receiving a certain quantity of fpecie, which is much wanted in the ex-
hautted {late of the Danifh finances, For fuch is the deficiency of {pecic, that even at
Kongfberg itfelf, change for a bank note is with difficulty obtained ; the miners are paid
~in {mall notes, and the whole expences defrayed in paper currency. The value of
13,000 rix-dollars, or 2,600 in block-filver, is annually fent to Copenhagen ; the re-
mainder of the ore is coined here, and transferred to Copenhagen: The largett piece
of money now ftruck at Kongiberg is only eigit fkillings, or four-pence.
September 11. Having fatisfied our curiofity, we departed from Kongfberg in the af-
ternoon, and direéted our courfe to the cobalt works at Foflum, We returned to Hogs-
fund; but inftead of ferrying over the Dramme, coafted the river for a little way, then
turned into fo rugged a road with fuch deep ruts, that we narrowly efcaped being over-
turned, and did not arrive at the place of our deftination till pait midnight. We pre-
vioufly fent forward a peafant to order beds, expecting to find an inn, or at leaft a cot-
tage, wherein we might pafs the night. To our extreme difappoiytment, however, we
learned that Foflum contained only two or three villages, confiiting of {cattered cot-
tages, and that the place we flopped at contained only the houfe of the infpector of the
: cobalt
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