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"The beginning of the Academy may be compared to a clear morning which promises a beautiful day but turbulent times, heavy misfortunes, inward controversies, and bloody wars, soon rolled darkness and thick clouds over the sky of Swedish learning. The Muses were silenced; the youth were scattered abroad; the sages disappeared; and the Academy, instead of being regarded as the garden of knowledge, became a desert. But seasons more tranquil have succeeded: Upsal rises from her decay, the youth of Sweden return, and the shores of the Baltic are again enlightened by her scientific fires.”

My fire and my pen are both worn out for the night; the latter can hardly scrawl the adieu! of your faithful friend.

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LETTER XLI.

Sala, March, 1808.

HAVING visited all above ground, we now proposed to explore the

nether regions; and accordingly set forth for Dunamora, the nearest mine, and particularly celebrated for its iron and furnaces. Its depth is above eighty fathoms. The distance being little more than four Swedish miles from Upsal, we soon arrived at this interesting spot.

As we drove along and approached the vicinity of the mine, we were entertained by the picturesque effects of the villages inhabited by the miners, the forges and furnaces for working and smelting the iron when brought above the surface of the earth. These are on a very extensive scale, and employ daily about three hundred persons. On arriving at the mouth of this entrance to Hades, I found the monarch of the scene, the director, more than civil; the introduction of our archiepiscopal friend produced us the most polite attention; and having examined all around, our intelligent conductor attended us to view the wonders of the abyss.

The descent is not like that usually found, the opening being of a large extent, instead of the well-like perforation of common mines. The mode of passage is in casks, fixed to large cables, which are raised

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View of the great MINE of COPPER at FAHLUN DALECARLIA, from a drawing by MARTIN of STOCKHOLM.

Published Feb 11522 by I Calea Strand, London,

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