the inhabited part of the mine, where the pick-axe and the spade were still rewarded by the sparkling ore. Here we descried, at a considerable distance through the gloom, a large cell lit by a solitary lamp, which casting its beams downward, discovered two beings black as Erebus, sitting silent over their meal, with an air more befitting infernal residents (vampires if you please,) than creatures connected with human nature.

In these excavations, illumined like a sepulchre, the workmen assemble at mid-day to take their dinner and temporary rest. We passed by the entrance of one of them when the miners had met. Many of the industrious individuals were lying in various picturesque attitudes on wooden benches, and the projections of the rock; from the higher masses of which hung ragged pieces of canvas, savagely supported by torn branches of pine, meant as signals where to find the banquetting chamber of these sons of Odin; and also to divide their retreat from the vulgar passage of the subterranean world. In the centre of this banditti-like scene, a fire blazed, which casting its lurid lights on the surrounding groupes of men, their strange vestments, tools for working, and besides all, a couple of horses asleep in the corner, formed a picture of savage wildness, only to be described by the author of Gil Blas, or sketched by our own admirable Mortimer.

"What a dismal region is this!" exclaimed I to my friend.

"You have yet to go deeper; Sir," said our conductor; "this is only half way to the grand gallery."

Expecting now to pay a visit to the antipodes, we stepped a second

time into our bucket, and as swiftly (though less poetically!) as the Knight of La Mancha and his wooden horse were carried beyond the Pleiades, we were lowered to the bottom of a gulph that really seemed opening to receive us for ever. All here was on a larger scale than above: more people were at work, and a greater number of horses at the wheels to draw off the water which in various channels burst from hidden springs, and flowed in torrents across avenues just excavated by the blasting gunpowder.

·Being led into a stony apartment, something like the aisle of a church, our guide desired us to write our names in a book kept on purpose, as a register of all who visit the mines. On turning over the leaves for many | a year back, we saw several signatures of our countrymen; and some sufficiently respected to give an additional charm to the places consecrated by their footsteps.

Having walked ourselves weary, we desired to return; and again entering our flying bucket, cut through the air in our ascent. On looking up, the view was equally striking with that I saw on turning my eyes downwards. The mouth of the shaft (which at the top is a circle of very considerable diameter,) appeared reduced to the size of the moon; and did not seem unlike herself shining through a black sky, and silvering the rough cliffs with her meridian glory. On looking into the mine in our journey upward, the light struck partially only on the rocks which gradually receded into darkness; and the red fires of the workmen below, throwing the blackness of the deep caverns of the lower mine into the very hues of Erebus, gave such a horror to the scene, so impressed us when we looked upwards to the clear azure, with the idea

of heaven above; and when we looked downwards, with that of hell beneath, that I only wondered how we could have borne so long a sojourn in the regions of the damned. Then, my friend, when these pleasant images crossed our imaginations, think how delectable it was to be hanging suspended by a single ligature between life and an apparently bottomless pit! I assure you, in sober seriousness, it made me shudder to reflect that the smallest accident happening to the cord or the bucket, would at once hurl us down a chasm of eighty fathoms, where the points of a thousand projecting rocks must meet our fall, and finish our career, long before the yawning waves in the nethermost pitch, would receive our mangled bodies!

We were told that at present the average profits of the mine are four thousand pounds annually. This, as well as those at Dunamora and Fahlun, pay an eighth of the produce to the King, who has the right to appoint the directing officers over the different works. Having paid a couple of dollars for the use of our robes, we left this Swedish Potosi, and returned to Sala.

Intending to set forwards to-morrow on our tour, I dispatch this letter by a gentleman, who obligingly takes charge of it to Stockholm; whence, I hope, it will soon find its way to England, to assure the little circle there of all "gentle thoughts to them-ward," from your ever faithful friend.

1

LETTER XLII.

WE

Mountains of Dalecarlia, March, 1808.

E left Sala early in the morning, in order to arrive at Fahlun the same evening. By hard travelling we accomplished our purpose; and midnight lodged us at last at a tolerably comfortable inn. The road hither had proved very bad: the further we advanced, the less snow we found, which rendered the footing for the horses exceedingly slippery and dangerous.

Almost the whole of the way from Sala to Hedemora, the first city in the province of Dalecarlia, is flat and uninteresting; but just as if nature marked that district of heroes by her peculiar smiles, on the frontiers of Westmanland, one post before we approach Hedemora, the face of the country becomes more undulating and wooded; and a few miles further, entering a defile between two high hills, we are suddenly introduced to a series of lovely views, varying their beauties by the continued interchange of mountain and valley. Travelling thus through the very heart of them, the eye is attracted at every turning of the road by these majestic heights, clothed with fine trees, and sheltering innumerable happy villages clustering on the margin of the lakes which generally shine at their foot.

The city of Hedemora stands on one of these lofty hills, commanding a view of the surrounding vales, and an immense expanse of water, which extends before it in a hundred directions, forming beautiful islands; and enlivening the landscape by a thousand boats with their light sails, which dance over its surface in the summer season.

Although it was night when we traversed most of these romantic scenes, yet it was one of those in which,

"Troilus, methinks, mounted the Trojan wall,

And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents,
Where Cressid lay that night!"

The heavens were unclouded, illumined by a splendid moon; and with fifteen or sixteen degrees of cold in the air, not only every breath we drew was pure and inspirating; but the clearness of the atmosphere made each surrounding object as brightly conspicuous as at noon-day. Such nights can only be seen in northern climes. Thus drinking in the balm of nature at every respiration, and feasting on her beauties at every turning of the eye, we were abruptly informed of our approach to Fahlun by a strong sulphureous and vitriolic vapour. It began when we were within half a Swedish mile from the town; and augmented to such an excess as we drew nearer, that at last we were enveloped in a thick mist. The moon was now obscured by the veil this cruel metallic enemy threw over us; and not only were we deprived of what we wished to see, but were almost stifled by its oppressive exhalations.

Use doth breed a nature in a man: by the next morning we could endure