PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



SOMERSETSHIRE ARCHvEOLOGICAL AND 

 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 



1858, PART II. 



PAPER S, ETC 



(Du tjje JÖtetag (Dperatintts af tjje 

 Ünnumjs in Britonr. 



BY JAMES YATES, M.A., 



FELLOW OF THE ROYAL, LINNJSAN, AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



Among the various ways adopted by the Romans for augmenting tue 

 commerce of their Settlements, there are two, of which the traces still 

 remain: the improvement in communication by the laying out of good 

 roads, and the development of the mineral wealth of a country by mining; 

 and since authenticated remains of the latter are very rare in this country, 

 it becomes important to examine with care whatever is attributed to the 

 agency of that great people, and to compare it with their known works in 

 other parts of the world. — Warrington W. Smyth, M.A., in Memoirs of the 

 Geological Survey of Great Britain, vol. I. p. 480. 



THE design of the following essay is to give an 

 account of the mining Operations of the Romans in 

 Britain. For the elucidation of this subject it appears 

 necessary first to consider what were their practices and 

 their methods of working in other parts of the empire, and 

 more particularly in Spain, their principal mining district. 

 In 1808 the philosophical faculty of the University of 



\OI.. VIII. 1«.')8, PART II. A 



