ines, no one thought
of searching for him underground. The surface is traversed by various
crevices, some leading to the workings underground; and probably
Gustavus, prompted by curiosity, had looked down one of them, and had
either, losing his balance, fallen in, or been precipitated by some
jealous rival in the good graces of the once blooming girl, now a
tottering old woman, weighed down with a double burden of infirmity and
age. She probably forgot how years had passed away, as she gazed once
more on the face of her youthful and handsome lover.

Besides copper, Sweden produces iron of great excellence, won from its
celebrated mines of Dannemora, and largely imported into England for the
manufacture of steel.

Leaving the university town of Upsala, and passing through a natural
barrier of forests and lakes, in which lie the iron-works of Oesterby,
the travellers reached the place in which the pit of Dannemora is
situated; not a sign announced the vicinity of the mine, until they saw
the machines for lifting the ore, and a few huts scattered about, when
they found themselves standing on the brink of a vast pit or crater,
whose black and precipitous walls fence an abyss of a mile in
circumference, and a depth of 450 feet. Here and there in that cold
region they perceived patches of perennial snow and along the black
walls, the dark entrance to labyrinthine caves fringed with long
stalactites of ice. In some of these hollows flames were seen creeping
along the cliff as they issued from piles of fir wood to soften the hard
rock, while on every part of the deep gulf human beings were at work,
the clang of their hammers sounding like the clicking of numberless
clocks, mingled with the creaking of machinery, which brings to the
surface the casks of ore. At length a bell tolled, and men, women, and
children were seen ascending in the tubs, some standing on the edges,
holding on with perfect confidence to the rope by which they were
hoisted up.

Silence now reigned below, except when the voices of overseers were
heard summoning those who had lagged behind, to ascend in haste.
Scarcely had they reached the upper surface when a loud thundering roar
was heard, which echoed through the cavern. The ground trembled as if
convulsed by an earthquake, while black masses of smoke with pieces of
stone or ore ascended from the gulf, and the crashing sound of falling
masses rent from the mother earth was heard. When all the char