CHAP. II. 



EGYPT AND NUBIA. 51 



gree, but more to the universal employment of 

 slaves alone in the mines. With all their impedi- 

 ments, the mining of the Egyptians was carried 

 to a great extent, but, as Diodorus asserts, was 

 as laborious and as costly as it was extensive *. 



The separation of the metals from the sub- 

 stances with which they are combined in the 

 veins must have slowly and gradually advanced 

 with a rude people. At first ores found in the 

 purest state would be alone made use of; but as 

 they became scarce, other ores, of a description 

 that before had been neglected, would present 

 themselves, and necessity would lead to means 

 of rendering them useful. The inhabitants of 

 Nubia were undoubtedly self-taught miners and 

 refiners ; and though the steps that led to their 

 practice are unknown at present, we cannot err 

 in supposing them to be nearly the same as those 

 of other nations in the same stage of civilization, 

 among whom the progress has been traced with 

 more accuracy. Thus the ancient Britons formed 

 their establishments for purifying their ores in 

 gullies, which were washed by rapid streams of 

 water; and the Peruvians, by placing theirs in a 

 fire produced from wood, coal, dung, and saline 

 plants. The Egyptians seem, by indications 

 still visible, to have chiefly availed themselves of 

 the aid of fire in the first part of the process, and 



1 Diod. book iii. c. 105. 



