156 



BOOK VI. 



A — Rectangular iron bands on truck. B — Its iron straps. C— Iron axle. 

 D — Wooden rollers. E— Small iron keys. F — Large blunt iron pin. 



G — Same truck upside down. 



The open truck has a capacity half as large again as a wheelbarrow ; it is 

 about four feet long and about two and a half feet wide and deep ; and since 

 its shape is rectangular, it is bound together with three rectangular iron 

 bands, and besides these there are iron straps on all sides. Two small iron 

 axles are fixed to the bottom, around the ends of which wooden rollers revolve 

 on either side ; in order that the rollers shall not fall off the immovable 

 axles, there are small iron keys. A large blunt pin fixed to the bottom of the 

 truck runs in a groove of a plank in such a way that the truck does not 

 leave the beaten track. Holding the back part with his hands, the carrier 

 pushes out the truck laden with excavated material, and pushes it back 

 again empty. Some people call it a " dog "*, because when it moves it 

 makes a noise which seems to them not unlike the bark of a dog. This truck 

 is used when they draw loads out of the longest tunnels, both because it is 

 moved more easily and because a heavier load can be placed in it. 



Bateas' are hollowed out of a single block of wood ; the smaller kind 

 are generally two feet long and one foot wide. When they have been 

 filled with ore, especially when but little is dug from the shafts and tunnels, 

 men either carry them out on their shoulders, or bear them away hung from 



*Canis. The Germans in Agricola's time called a truck a hundt — a hound. 

 ''Alveus, — " Tray." The Spanish term batea has been so generally adopted into the 

 mining vocabulary for a wooden bowl for these purposes, that we introduce it here. 



