3i8 



BOOK VIII. 



the place will permit, extending in every direction more than sixty feet. 

 Thus, when the water of the river or stream in autumn and winter inundates 

 the land, the gates of the weir are closed, by which means the current carries 

 the mud mixed with fine tin-stone into the area. In spring and summer 

 this mud is washed on the canvas strakes or on the ordinary strake, and 

 even the finest black-tin is collected. Within a distance of four thousand 

 fathoms along the bed of the stream or river below the buildings in which 

 the tin-stuff is washed, the miners do not make such weirs, but put inclined 

 fences in the meadows, and in front of each fence they dig a ditch of the 

 same length, so that the mud mixed with the fine tin-stone, carried along by the 

 stream or river when in flood, may settle in the ditch and cHng to the fence. 

 When this mud is collected, it is likewise washed on canvas strakes and on 

 the ordinary strake, in order that the fine tin-stone may be separated from 

 it. Indeed we may see many such areas and fences collecting mud of this 

 kind in Meissen below Altenberg in the river Moglitz, — which is always of a 

 reddish colour when the rock containing the black tin is being crushed under 

 the stamps. 



A — River. B— Weir. C — Gate. D— Area. E— Meadow. F — Fence, G — Ditch. 



