fortia’s travels in Sweden . $\gt

Sweden , poffefling meadows, arable lands, and mines of all defcriptions. Its pofitionwith refpect to lake Mceler affords great facility to the tranfport of its productions, prin-cipally iron, of which it exports a confiderable quantity. Two famous diets have beenheld at Wefteros, the one in 1527, the other in 1544 ; the firft deprived the clergy ofits poffefiions, and the fecond fecured the throne, before elective, to the defcendants ofGuftavus Vafa.

From Wefteros to Upfal' by Niqivarn, Enkceuping, (a town,) Lijlena, and Sefva, isaltogether feven miles and one eighth: after the firft ftage you crofs the Serva or Sa-gan, the fame river as flows by Sahla over a bridge, which palled, you are in Upland.This is a fine road ; the bridge which feparates the two provinces is built fharp of afcent,on account of being liable to be covered by the water at the melting of the winter’s fnow.Enkceuping is a city, which elfewhere would be looked upon only as a confiderablevillage; its fituatiou is advantageous at the bottom of a creek of lake Mceler.

Chap. XXII-— Route from 'Upfal to Abo, by Dannemora, CEufterby , Lcefta , Forfnarck,

Grifleham , and the ifle of Aland .

AS we have already fpoken of the city of Upfal, we fhall proceed direCtly to thedefcription of thofe objeCts which we noticed on our paffage to Abo in Finland ; thistrip is very interefting on account of its affording a fight of the richeft mine and the1110ft capital forges in Sweden .

From Upfal to Hufby one mile and a half; thence to Anderbyis two and a quarter;the road never bad, but frequently extremely narrow. Half a mile from Hufby wecame to Natholma, an excellent forge belonging to Count Brahe; and a little beyondthis to his feat, which has a handfome appearance *. In the two laft flages we paffedover feveral plains. From Anderfby to Dannemora is three quarters of a mile, thenceto CEufterby the fame diftance, although there is a nearer road. The road to CEufterbyturns to the right, that to the mine to the left, you pafs under the machinery of thepumps, which is fo low as to enforce your attention in cafe your carriage be any wayselevated.

Dannemora. This is the mine which may juftly be called the Peru of Sweden : it pro-duces the beft iron, and of that at leaft a tenth part of the production of the whole king-dom ; it is fituated in the hamlet of CEufterby. It is far from curious in itfeif as amine, fince it has no galleries, no vaults, nor interior works; but merely a quarry openat the top. We fpeak of the great hole into which the curious are wont to defcend,and which alone yields twenty thoufand fchippunds, thus divided: two fifths to Lcefta,two fifths to CEufterby, and one fifth to Gimo. It is the beft iron of this mine, whollymonopolized by the Englifh, of which they make their fteel ; it cofts nearly a rix-dollarmore than other iron. M. de Vergennes, during his embaffy to Sweden , contrived tofend fome of it to France for fteel manufactures, but the importation was not con-tinued. From the firft works to the laft, there is a diftance of a thoufand ells in onedirection. Seventy-three openings have been made, but great part of them are clofed,either on account of their not yielding ore, or the works being overflowed.

This mine was worked for the firft time in the thirteenth century; but the moftauthentic monuments refpeCting it, are of the date of the fifteenth ; its greateft

* He has another feat between Upfal and Stockholm , where are many manufcripts, particularly in thePolifli language.

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