102 pr.rsrr's NATURAL HISTOUY. [Book XXXIII. 



like those previous!}' mentioned, 41 and it is generally considered 

 that there is nothing more stubborn in existence except in- 

 deed the greed for gold, which is the most stubborn of all things. 



When these operations are all completed, beginning at th<r~ 

 last, they cut away 42 the wooden pillars at the point where 

 they support the roof: the coming down fall gives warning, 

 which is instantly perceived by the sentinel, and by him only, 

 who is set to watch upon a peak of the same mountain. By 

 voice as well as by signals, he orders the workmen to be im- 

 mediately summoned from their labours, and at the same 

 moment takes to flight himself. Tim mountain, rent to pieces, 

 is cleft asunder, hurling its debris to a distance with a crash 

 which it is impossible for the human imagination to conceive ; 

 and from the midst of a cloud of dust, of a density quite in- 

 credible, the victorious miners ga/o upon this downfall of 

 Mature. Nor yet even then are they sure of gold, nor indeed 

 were they by any means certain that there was any to bo 

 found when they first began to excavate, it being quite suf- 

 ficient, as an inducement to undergo such perils and to incur 

 such vast expense, to entertain the hope that they shall obtain 

 what they so eagerly desire. 



Another labour, too, quite equal to this, and one which en- 

 tails even greater expense, is that of bringing rivers 43 from 

 the more elevated mountain heights, a distance in many in- 

 stances of one hundred miles perhaps, fur the purpose of 

 washing these debris. The channels thus formed arc called 

 "corrugi," fro:u our word "corrivatio,"" I suppose ; and even 

 when these are once made, they entail a thousand fresh labours. 

 The fall, for instance, must bo steep, that the 'water maybe 

 precipitated, so to say, rather than flow; and it is in this 

 manner that it is brought from the most elevated points. 

 Then, too, rallies and crevasses have tolx- united by the aid of 

 aqueducts, and in another place impassable rocks have to bo 

 hewn away, and forced to make room for hollowed troughs of 

 wood ; the person hewing them hanging suspended all the 

 time with ropes, so that to a spectator who views the operations 



l The breaking*maehinei, used for crushing the sil'-x. 



42 " CaMlunt " is certainly a preferable reading to * cudunt," though the 

 latter is given by the Lamberg MS. 



* s A similar method of washing auriferous earth or sand in the mines, 

 is still employed in some cases. 



4 "The bringing of water into one channel," 



