in Brigantia and other parts of Britain. 249 



now it is ascertained to be indigenous in Lusitania and Gal- 

 licia, in sandy surface soil, of a black colour, and only distin- 

 guished by its weight. Small pebbles [of the ore] also occur 

 principally in dried beds of streams. The miners [metallici] 

 wash these sands, and what subsides they melt in furnaces. 



" It is also found with the gold ores (aurariis metallis) which 

 are called stream works (elutia), the stream of water washing 

 out (eluente) black pebbles a Httle varied with white, and of 

 the same weight as the gold. On this account, in the vessels 

 in which the gold is collected, these pebbles remain with it; 

 afterwards they are separated in the chimneys* (caminis se- 

 parantur), and being melted are resolved into plumbum album. 



" In Gallicia plumbum nigrum is not made, because the 

 adjoining Cantabria [Asturias] so much abounds in that 

 metal. 



" Not out of white plumbum as out of the black can silver 

 be extracted. 



" To solder together [pieces of] plumbum nigrum is im- 

 practicable without [the use of] white plumbum, nor the white 

 to the black without the addition of oil. Nor can [pieces of] 

 white plumbum be soldered together without the aid of the 

 black metal. 



" That [plumbum] album was in esteem during the Trojan 

 time Homer is witness, who calls it Kaao-LTepo^. 



" Of plumbum nigrum the source is double : either it comes 

 from its own vein, without admixture, or grows with silver, 

 and is melted while mixed with that metal. The part which 

 is first liquid is called stannumf, that which flows next is 

 silver, that which remains in the furnace galena:]:, which is 

 the third portion of the vein (or ore). This being again 

 melted § yields plumbum nigrum, [the other] two parts [of 

 the ore] being deducted." 



This chapter is a text on which a 38th book of Natural 

 History might be written, embracing the history or fable of 

 the Kaaai,TepcBe<i, the ancient artsof metallurgy, and the eager 

 trade in metals which allured the Phoenician sailors on the 

 Atlantic, and led the Roman armies to Britain. 



What is Koaatrepo^, for which plumbum album is the equi- 



* What distinctive meaning should be attached to furnaces and camini 

 is uncertain. It seems that the canu'ni may indicate, if not what we call 

 chimneys, at least cavities in or above the furnace. 



f Analogous to this is the process of separating silvery lead from mere 

 lead, invented by H. L. Pattison, Esq. 



I Lib. xxxiv. cap. 18. Est et molybdaena, quam alibi galenam vocavimus, 

 plumbi et argenti vena communis. 



§ At the present day we should perform this melting of the residual ' ga- 

 lena' in the slag-hearth, with a flux. 



