I Should Have Liked To Descend Into The Great Pit, But It Was Too
Late On This Day, And I Would Not Wait Another.
I should not have
feared the descent, as I was familiar with such adventures, having
explored the salt-mines of Wieliczka and Bochnia, in Gallicia, some
years before, in which I had had to let myself down by a rope, which
is a much more dangerous method than the tub.
With the stroke of twelve, four blasting trains in the large pit
were fired. The man whose business it was to apply the match ran
away in great haste, and sheltered himself behind a wall of rock.
In a few moments the powder flashed, some stones fell, and then a
fearful crash was heard all around, followed by the rolling and
falling of the blasted masses. Repeated echoes announced the
fearful explosion in the interior of the pits: the whole left a
terrible impression on me. Scarcely had one mine ceased to rage,
when the second began, then the third, and so on. These blastings
take place daily in different mines.
The other pits are deeper, the deepest being 600 feet; but the
mouths are smaller, and the shafts not perpendicular, so that the
eye is lost in darkness, which is a still more unpleasant sensation.
I gazed with oppressed chest into the dark space, vainly
endeavouring to distinguish something. I should not like to be a
miner; I could not endure life without the light of day; and when I
turned from the dark pits, I cast my eyes thankfully on the cheerful
landscape basking in the sun.
I returned to Upsala on the same day, having made this little
journey by post. I can merely narrate the facts, without giving an
opinion on the good or bad conveniences for locomotion, as this was
more a pleasure-trip than a journey.
As I had hired no carriage, I had a different vehicle at every
station, and these vehicles consisted of ordinary two-wheeled wooden
carts. My seat was a truss of hay covered with the horse-cloth. If
the roads had not been so extremely good, these carts would have
shaken terribly; but as it was, I must say that I rode more
comfortably than in the carriols of the Norwegians, although they
were painted and vanished; for in them I had to be squeezed in with
my feet stretched out, and could not change my position.
The stations are unequal, - sometimes long, sometimes short. The
post-horses are provided here, as in Norway, by wealthy peasants,
called Dschns-peasants. These have to collect a certain number of
horses every evening for forwarding the travellers the next morning.
At every post-house a book is kept, in which the traveller can see
how many horses the peasant has, how many have already been hired,
and how many are left in the stable. He must then inscribe his
name, the hour of his departure, and the number of horses he
requires.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 140 of 170
Words from 72080 to 72584
of 87606
