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- 550 FORTIA’S TRAVELS IN SWEDEN.
depth is eighty Swedifh fathoms ; it fupplies feventeen forges with iron, and belongs to
thirteen proprietors ; each of the feventeen great forges among which the ore is diftri-
buted keep a man at the fpot to look to the fair diftribution of the produce. The mine
is capable of yielding fixty thoufand {chippunds of ore, but no more than from forty to
forty-two {chippunds is extracted. The ore yields from fixty to feventy-two per cent.,
the work in the mine is extremely eafy, being nothing but a block of metal; it was in-
undated in 1693, and twenty years were employed before it could be emptied, and its
works be refumed. A very confiderable work has even become neceflary on the fide
of the lake which ads on the pumps, for the prevention of a fimilar accident. This
undertaking has enabled the miners to begin a new fearch, in which ore has been found
ata very inconfiderable depth. There are in all four hundred workmen, if the women
and children be included, who are very numerous in the large hole. Wood was for-
merly ufed for heating the ore, which caufed avery great confumption; at prefent they
ufe powder alone, as has been the cafe for feven and twenty years; from two hundred
and ten to two hundred and fifteen quintals are thus annually expended at a coft of
from 10 to 11 rix-dollars per quintal. The tribute paid to the crown is a tenth of the
rough iron; the ore is blown up every day at a fixed period, to wit, noon. The great
hole is conftantly full of fmoke, unlefs when expelled by a violent wind, when alone
the bottom can be difcerned from the fummit. ‘There is a ftaircafe but dangerous and
confequently not ufed ; the only mode of defcent in practice is by buckets; we were
five minutes and forty feconds in going down; the depth is feventy-eight toifes, there
is day-light in every part; even in July we met with ice here and found it cold. In
one corner is a forge for the tools of the workmen ; no horfes are employed within the
mine, but eighty without for daily work : all the buckets are acted upon by horfes ;
the wheel that works the pumps is twenty-four ells in diameter; it is the largeft in
Sweden, and is worked by a very trifling head of water.
Few years pafs over without fome accident from the falling of ftones; but the rope
was never known to break ;_ it is related that a girl being in the bucket, the bucket
ftriking again{t a projeting rock was overfet, but the girl’s petticoats fortunately catch-
ing the rock, fhe hung by them till fuch time another bucket was let down to her re-
lief; what was however equally extraordinary, the girl had the courage to go down
again the fame day as if nothing had happened. Since the ufe of gunpowder in the
mine the workmen have earned more, as being enabled to do more labour; fome have
even made money and built themfelves {mall houfes. Corn being dear in 1791, the la-
bourers of the mine infifted upon paying no more than the fourth, inftead of half of
the market price as ufual, but the proprietors who had a year’s ftock of ore on hand,
refufing to employ them on fuch conditions they defifted from their demand.
The following minerals may be obtained at this mine; black and bluifh granulated
iron ore, fometimes naturally polifhed.on the furface ; many varieties of amianthus 5
mountain leather and mountain cork ; cryftals of calcareous fpar, pyramidal and hex- -
agonal in drufes ; pale amethyfts; cloudy topazes; cryftals of white quartz in drufes,
moftly without prifms ; rock garnets, fometimes cryftalized ; rock pebbles, of various
colours, fometimes in layers; mineral pitch; and martial pyritesin cubes. ‘The iron
of this mine, the deareft in Sweden, is fhipped at Stockholm, and not at Oregrund,
where formerly it ufed to be fhipped, and the name of which place it has preferved in
foreign countries. By the fide of the mine are the mineral f{prings of Harvick, the fla-
vour and properties of which bear great analogy to the waters of Balaruc.
_ CE£ufterby isa quarter of a league from Dannemora; here you may have accommo.
dation at the inn, which is tolerable, and moderate of charge. ‘This eltate belongs to
at Meflrs,
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