ff-OXtds TRAVELS IN NORWAY. $ 6 ]

that place. Having ferried over the Dramme at Hogs -fund, we quitted this fmilingvaUevj and paffing among hills and rocks, and over ftony roads, did not, till the dufkof trie evening, reach Kongfberg, celebrated for its fdver mines, the produce of whichhas been confiderablv exaggerated by moil of the travellers who have publifhed on this-lubjeT.

Kongfberg ft retches on both Tides the river Lowe, which, in its courfe through thetown, falls in a feries of fmail but pidturefque catarabts over the bare rocks. The crags-which border the town are in fome parts naked, in others clothed 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 feenery are rugged--r ‘efs and horror. , Kongfberg contains about one thoufand houfes, including the miners,,mid fix thoufand inhabitants. We were accompanied to the mines, which lie two miles-iroin the town, by a merchant who fpoke Englifh, and obligingly ferved as our in*terpreter.

Thefe mines were difeovered and opened during the reign of Chriftian IV. Six-and--thirty mines are now working ; the deepeft, called Segen-Gottes in der North, is fixhundred and fifty-two feet perpendicular. The matrix of the ore is the Jaxum of Lin-n mus; the filver is extracted according to the ufiial procefs, either by fmelting the ore■with lead, or by pounding. Pure filver is occafionally found in fmail grains and infpiall pieces of different fizes, feldom weighing more than four or five pounds. Some-times, indeed, but extremely rare, maffes of a confiderable bulk have been difeovered,and one in particular which weighed 409 marks, and was worth 3000 rix-doilars (book)}this piece is ftill preferved in the cabinet of curiofities at Copenhagen .

Formerly'thefe mines produced annually 70,000k ; and in 1769, even 70,cool. ; atprefent they yield only from 50,000!. to 54,0001. Above 4,000 men were neceffaryfor working the mines, fmelting and preparing the ore ; but a few years ago, twothoufand four hundred miners were removed to the cobalt works lately eftablifhed atFolium, 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 5,760k perm pnth, amounts to only 4,400k or about 52,800k per annum. Yet even with this di-minution the expences generally equal, and fomerirnes exceed the profits.

Government, therefore, draws no other advantage from thefe mines, than by givingemployment 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-kaufted date of the Danifh finances. For fuch is the deficiency of fpecie, that even atKongfberg itfelf, change for a bank note is with difficulty obtained ; the miners are paidltl fmail notes, and the whole expences defrayed in paper currency. The value of1 35 °oo rix-dollars, or 2,600 in block-filver, is annually lent to Copenhagen ; the re-mainder of the ore is coined here, and transferred to Copenhagen . The larged piece

money now druck at Kongfberg is only eight Addings, or four-pence.

September 11. Having fatisfied pur curiofity, we departed from Kongfberg in the af-ternoon, and directed our courfe to the cobalt works at Fofifum.' We returned to Hogs -ftmd ; but indead of ferrying over the Dramme, coal, ed the river for a little way, thenburned 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 dedination till pad midnight. We pre-Vioufly fent forward a peafant to order beds, expediting to find an inn, or at lead a cot-Vtge, wherein we might pafs the night. To our extreme difappointment, however, welearned that Foflum contained only two or three villages, confiding of fcattered cot--ia g.es, and that the place we flopped at contained only the houfe of the infpector of the

cobalt