BOOK II. 33 



the superior and some the inferior parts of the veins ; to some he gives 

 the cross veins, to others the incUned veins. If the man who first starts 

 work finds the vein to be metal-bearing or yielding other mining products, 

 it will not be to his advantage to cease work because the neighbourhood may 

 be evil, but he will guard and defend his rights both by arms and by the law. 

 When the Bergmeister^^ delimits the boundaries of each owner, it is the duty 

 of a good miner to keep within his bounds, and of a prudent one to repel 

 encroachments of his neighbours by the help of the law. But this is enough 

 about the neighbourhood. 



The miner should try to obtain a mine, to which access is not difficult, 

 in a mountainous region, gently sloping, wooded, healthy, safe, and not far - 

 distant from a river or stream by means of which he may convey his ^ 

 mining products to be washed and smelted. This indeed, is the best 

 position. As for the others, the nearer they approximate to this position the 

 better they are ; the further removed, the worse. 



Now I will discuss that kind of minerals for which it is not necessary 

 to dig, because the force of water carries them out of the veins. Of these 

 there are two kinds, minerals — and their fragments^* — and juices. When 

 there are springs at the outcrop of the veins from which, as I have already said, 

 the above-mentioned products are emitted, the miner should consider these 

 first, to see whether there are metals or gems mixed with the sand, or whether 

 the waters discharged are filled with juices. In case metals or gems have 

 settled in the pool of the spring, not only should the sand from it be 

 washed, but also that from the streams which flow from these springs, and 

 even from the river itself into which they again discharge. If the springs dis- 

 charge water containing some juice, this also should be collected ; the further 

 such a stream has flowed from the source, the more it receives plain water and 

 the more diluted does it become, and so much the more deficient in strength. 

 If the stream receives no water of another kind, or scarcely any, not only 

 the rivers, but hkewise the lakes which receive these waters, are of the same 

 nature as the springs, and serve the same uses ; of this kind is the lake 

 which the Hebrews call the Dead Sea, and which is quite full of bituminous 

 fluids^^. But I must return to the subject of the sands. 



Springs may discharge their waters into a sea, a lake, a marsh, a river, 

 or a stream ; but the sand of the sea-shore is rarely washed, for although the 

 water flowing down from the springs into the sea carries some metals or 

 gems with it, yet these substances can scarcely ever be reclaimed, because 

 they are dispersed through the immense body of waters and mixed up with 



^^MiigisUr Meiallorum. See Note i, p. 78, for the reasons of the adoption of 

 the term Bergmeister and page 95 for details of his duties. 



^^Ramenia. " Particles." The author uses this term indifferently for fragments, 

 particles of mineral, concentrates, gold dust, black tin, etc., in all cases the result of either 

 natural or artificial concentration. As in technical English we have no general term for both 

 natural and artificial " concentrates," we have rendered it as the context seemed to demand. 



**A certain amount of bitumen does float ashore in the Dead Sea ; the origin of it is, 

 however, uncertain. Strabo (xvi., 2, 42), Pliny (v., 15 and 16), and Josephus (iv., 8), all 

 mention this fact. The lake for this reason is often referred to by the ancient writers by the 

 name Asphaltites. 



