104 MINES IN CHAP. u. 



obtained possession of it, about five hundred and 

 twenty years before Christ, it yielded some gold 

 and much silver, though the operations were im- 

 peded by the rudeness and fierceness of the in- 

 habitants, who retired to the fastnesses of the 

 mountainous districts to secure their independ- 

 ence, and from which they could conveniently 

 issue forth to harass the intruders. 



Captain W. H. Smyth of the royal navy, who 

 has visited Sardinia within the few last years, and 

 has given the best account of that island, says, 

 " The mineral riches of Sardinia were well 

 known to the ancients ; and vast excavations, 

 with the remains of nine founderies still to be 

 traced, afford ample testimony of the extent of 

 their operations. Tradition asserts, that gold 

 was formerly extracted. There is no doubt but 

 silver was found in considerable quantities, as 

 it is even now produced in assaying lead. A 

 vein of lead near Rio de Cano yielded six ounces 

 of pure silver in a quintal of ore V 

 Great Bri- Although but small quantities of the precious 

 metals were obtained in this island in the remote 

 ages of antiquity, yet the whole subject of the 

 extracting and refining the several minerals is too 

 interesting to ourselves to allow of the omission 

 of any of the few notices respecting those opera- 

 tions that have come down to the present day. 



1 Smyth's Sardinia, 1828. 



