File:Alum Mine at Egeberg (JW Edy plate 56).jpg

A high mountain called Egeberg, is situated on the opposite side of the bay, or harbour of Christiania at Opsloe, by the church of which winds the great high road, leading immediately up the ascent. A little way on the right of the road is the alum mine, belonging to John Collett, Esq. of Ulivold, from which place, he can, by the assistance of a glass, observe the operations of the workmen here employed. It has the appearance of a stone quarry, as the materials are wholly collected from its sides, and the exterior is much stained with a ferruginous colour. The whole hill is composed of a black aluminous schistus, (schistus niger.) This species of slate, is in colour, a deep bluish black, hard, heavy, and moderately shining on the surface, capable of receiving a polish, and impervious to water; characters written on it are white; it does not strike fire with steel, or at all suffer by acids. It calcines to a red or pale brown colour, which will not stand as a pigment. The plates or laminæ in the quarries have a considerable dip to the south. They are easily dug by the quarry men, who are indifferent about their sizes, or forms, as small pieces are more convenient for calcination. I did not see any collected for school slates, nor did I observe upon them any impressions of fem, plants, insects or fishes ; which are not unusual in the schistus of Somersetshire, Wales, Yorkshire, the Canton of Glaris in Switzerland, Lapland, &c. &c. It is easily removed from its native bed, by the workmen, with a pick-axe and spade, and is then put into small carts, and drawn by one horse, to the extensive manufactory erected at the bottom of this hill. This establishment is well adapted to the chemical operations which the slate is to undergo, having the necessary apparatus, furnaces for calcining, cauldrons for boiling, and pits for crystallizing. The alum here produced is allowed to be of a good quality, and vast quantities are annually shipped for exportation in small vessels, from the wharf on the premises.¹ A little way up the road, above the mine, and nearly on a line with the house at its side is the spot from whence the view of Christiania, No. 49, was taken. As you ascend, the hill gradually becomes steeper, and in a serpentine direction you creep up its side to the top, from which it may be a mile and half, through the forest to the spot where the view No. 55 was taken. To the sides of this hill, the natives of Christiania exultingly lead all travellers, who with themselves are never weary of viewing and pointing out the individual beauties of the scene, and of repeating the anecdotes connected with it. On one little fertile spot, may be seen in the mmd's eye, the half-famished army of Charles XII, robbing, and greedily devouring, the scanty produce of the cranberry and juniper-bushes ; on another the triumphant entry of a favourite king, or the return of a great patron to the country, who are ever greeted with warm hearts. Provisions and merchandize are continually passing in abundance, to and from the city. The long-missing ship entering the harbour, the chearful bells, and the palace and cottage, are objects which harmonize peacefully with each other.

1.^ For more particulars see pages 16, 17, and 18, Picturesque Description of Norway.