MINING OPERATIONS OF THE ROMANS. 



the rnixture, was hard enough to be converted into 

 weapons and tools of all kinds, and in short to niake the 

 implenients for which iron was afterwards used. The ore 

 first obtained would, almost of necessity, be tbat wbich is 

 called " stream-tin ;" and the following account of it by 

 Pliny is reinarkably accurate : " It is a sand of a black 

 colour found on the surface of the earth, and is only to be 

 detected by its weight. Small pebbles occur along with 

 it, especially in the dry courses of torrents. The miners 

 wash these sands and smelt what subsides in furnaces."* 



There is sufficient reason to believe that the Emperors 

 had Roman soldiers stationed at the mines of Cornwall, 

 to superintend the working and to transport the tin to the 

 seat of the Empire. 



It has been disputed whether the trade in British tin 

 was conducted by St. Michael's Mount, or by the Isle of 

 Wio-ht. Strabo and Diodorus are the authorities cited to 

 determine the question ; but as they only quote an earlier 

 author, Posidonius, who knew nothing of Britain as a 

 Eoman Province, it appears to me that we cannot abso- 

 lutely depend on their testimony. It, however, seems 

 highly probable that both tin and other metals, having 

 been formed into pigs or ingots,| were conveyed by land 



* Summa tellure arenosa et caloris nigri; pondere tantum ea depre- 

 henditur. Interveniunt et minuti calculi, maxime torrentibus siccatis. 

 Lavaut eas arenas metallici, et quod subsidit coquunt in forcacibus.— Eist. 

 Nul. xxxiv., 16. s. 47. 



f The section of a Roman pig, found with many others at Cartbagena, 

 in Spaiu, bas the form of the astragal at the base of Ionic columns. 

 Probably, therefore, Diodorus (v. 22) means this form by äo-Tpdya\o<;. 

 The pig here referred to may be seen in the Museum of Economic Geology, 

 Jermyn St., London. Another from the same group was presented to the 

 British Museum by Yicount Palmerston. Each of them has the following 

 inscription : 



M. P. ItOSCIEIS. M. F. MAIG. 



