he might have appeared at mid-day. In January the cold was increased to that degree, that M. Reaumer's mercurial thermometer, which at Paris, in the great frost of 1709, only fell to fourteen degrees below the freezing point, was now got down to thirty-seven. The spirit of wine in the others was frozen; and if the door of a warm room were opened, the external air, in a moment, converted all the vapour in it into snow, whirling it round in white vortexes. If they went abroad, they felt as if the air were tearing their breasts in pieces; and within doors, the cracking of the wood, of which the houses are built, continually alarmed them with an increase of cold; and people are often seen in this country who have lost a leg or an arm by the frost. The cold, which during the winter is always very great, increases by such violent and sudden fits, as are almost infallibly fatal to those who have the unhappiness to be exposed to it; and sometimes sudden tempests of snow prove still more dangerous. The winds seem at once to blow from all quarters, and drive the snow about with such fury, that all the roads are in a moment rendered invisible. "How dreadful is the situation of a person," says our author, "surprised in the fields by such a storm! his knowledge of the country, and even the mark he may have taken by the trees, cannot avail him; he is blinded by the snow, and if he attempts to find his way home, is generally lost. In short, during the whole winter, the cold was so excessive, that on the 7th of April, at five in the morning, the thermometer had fallen to twenty divisions below the point of freezing, though every afternoon it rose two or three divisions above it: a difference

in the height not much less than that which the greatest heat and cold felt at Paris usually produce in that instrument. Thus in twenty-four hours we had all the variety in the temperate zones in the compass of a whole year." In summer, when the air is warmed by the sun, this country is infested with such swarms of gnats and flies of various species, that like clouds they darken the sky, and obscure the light of the sun. These insects fix on every part of the body, bite with unremitting fury; and some of them, wherever they fix, draw blood.

Notwithstanding these disadvantages, however, nature has bestowed on these dreary regions such conveniences, that as much content and happiness are to be found there as in many countries that enjoy the most favourable climate. The mountains, which rise to a prodigious height, and are of great extent, are perhaps intended by the author of nature, to shelter the plains from violent winds; and even their wildness and irregularity appear very beautiful, especially in summer, when the alternate succession of hills and valleys exhibit a delightful variety of prospects; and there are some places, which in that season may be reckoned among the most enchanting spots in the world.

Though the days in winter are extremely short, and the nights long and tedious, this is in some measure compensated by the pleasant luminous summers, when, in the greatest part of this country, the sun is several weeks visible above the horizon. Even in winter, the brightness of the moonlight, the twinkling of the stars, and the effulgent corruscations of the aurora borealis, afford a light sufficient for most occasions of life. Maupertuis observes, that the short days are no

sooner closed, than fires of a thousand figures and colours light up the sky, as if designed to com. pensate for the absence of the sun. These fires have not here, as in more southern climates, any constant situation; for though a luminous arch is often seen fixed towards the north, they seem more frequently to possess the whole extent of the hemisphere. Sometimes they begin in the form of a great scarf of bright light, with its extremities upon the horizon, which, with a motion resembling that of a fishing-net, glides softly up the sky, preserving a direction nearly perpendicular to the meridian; and most commonly after these preludes, all the lights unite at the zenith, and form the top of a crown. Arcs like those

seen in France towards the north, are here frequently situated towards the south; and often towards both the north and south at once. Their summits approach each other; and the distance of their extremities widens towards the horizon. "I have seen (says our author) some of the opposite arcs, whose summits almost joined at the zenith; and both the one and the other have frequently several concentric arcs beyond them. Their tops are all placed in the direction of the meridian, though with a little declination to the west; which I did not find to be constant, and which is sometimes insensible. It would be endless to mention all the different figures these meteors assume, and the various motions with which they are agitated. Their motion is most commonly like that of a pair of colours waved in the air, and the different tints of their light give them the appearance of so many vast streamers of changeable taffety, and sometimes they line a part of the sky with scarlet.

"On the 18th of December I saw a phenomenon

of this kind, that in the midst of all the wonders to which I was now every day accustomed excited my admiration. To the south a great space of the sky appeared tinged with so lively a red, that the whole constellation of Orion looked as if it had been dipped in blood. This light, which was at first fixed, soon moved, and changing into other colours, violet and blue, settled into a dome, whose top stood a little to the south-west of the zenith. The moon shone bright, but did not in the least efface it. In this country, where there are lights of so many different colours, I never saw but two that were red; and such are taken for presages of some great misfortune."

Another advantage is the twilight, which begins four or five hours before sun rise, and lasts as long after that luminary is set; indeed, many of the inhabitants sleep away most of the dark season, and employ the luminous part of the year, in their respective occupations; and generally suffer little in their health from this inconvenience.

MINERALS FOSSILS, &c.

SWEDEN abounds with various kinds of minerals and fossils; and among its mines there is one of silver, into which the workmen are lowered down in baskets to the depth of six hundred feet, where the roof of the mine is as high as a church, supported by vast arches of oak; and from thence they descend by ladders or baskets to the lowest part of the mine, at least two hundred and forty feet more. It is not known when this mine was first discovered, but it must have

been wrought for many ages. The ore yields but indifferently, and requires great pains to refine it; however it annually produces about twenty thousand crowns-worth of fine silver, of which the king has the pre-emption, paying one-fourth less than the real value.-Several mines of silver and copper have also been discovered in Swedish Lapland.

Copper is found plentifully in several parts of Sweden, and is reckoned the finest in Europe. The most noted mine is of vast extent, and about eighty fathoms deep; but it is said to have suffered much by the falling in of the roof; and the working of it is attended with great discouragement, from the large share the crown has in the profit. The annual produce of this mine amounts to the value of two hundred thousand pounds, whereof the king has a fourth part, and a duty upon the remainder of twenty-five per cent. when it is exported unwrought.

Some years ago an Italian gentleman came into Sweden, with proposals to make copper a shorter and cheaper way than had formerly been practised, so as to make that in five days which before required three weeks, and with fewer hands, and one fifth part of the charcoal. A bargain was soon concluded, and he was promised a remuneration of one hundred thousand crowns. His first essay succeeded to admiration; but when he came to work in earnest, and had got his new-invented furnaces built to his mind, the miners, as he complained, picked out the worst ore, and were otherwise so envious and untractable, that he failed of success, and lost his reward: nor was it without difficulty that he obtained leave to pur