MINING OPERATIONS OF THE ROMANS. 19 



found on other pigs ex arg.* The letters are supposed to 

 stand for ex argento, and to intimate that the lead was 

 extracted from silver. This seema to be the true explana- 

 tion, although, I think, we might read ex argentifodinis. 

 Even in the present day we find that where the galena 

 contains a large proportion of silver, as is frequently the 

 case in the British Isles, the mines are not called lead 

 mines, but silver mines. Also the litharge, which is an 

 impure oxide of lead, formed on the surface of the melted 

 mass during the process of refining, is called argenti spuma, 

 "froth of silver," not froth of lead.f It would seem con- 

 sistent with these ideas to regard the lead as extracted 

 from silver, rather than the silver as extracted from lead, 

 although the ore really contains a far greater proportion of 

 lead than of silver. 



SUSSEX. 

 In January, 1824, four pigs were found at Broomer's 

 Hill, near Pulborough. They were the property of Lord 

 Egremont, as Lord of the manor, and he presented one of 

 them in July following to the British Museum. It bears 

 the same inscription with that found in Derbyshire, a.D. 

 1787.J Another is preserved at Parham House, near 

 Steyning, the residence of the Hon. Bobert Curzon, to 

 whose son, the distinguished traveller and antiquary, I am 

 indebted for this information. The latter part of the in- 



» Gent. Mag., 1783, p. 936. Archceologia, ix. p. 47. Archaol, Journal, 

 vol. XI., p. 2/9. Journal of Archaological Association, vol. I., p 326* 

 A.D. 1819, vol. V., p. 227. T. Wright, The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon 

 p. 237- 



t Agricola de Re Metallica, L. x., p. 376-378, Ed. Basil, 1657. Püdv, 

 xxxiii., 35. 



X Mon. Histor. Britannica, vol. I., p. 120. Sussex Areliaological Colltc- 

 lions, vol. ii., p. 170. 



