CHAP. X. 



MIDDLE AGES. 241 



Panonias; the Upper containing the present pro- 

 vinces of Carniola, Carinthia, and the greater 

 part of Austria, and the Lower comprehending 

 Bosnia, Sclavonia, and that part of modern 

 Hungary which lies beyond the Danube. 



There are different opinions respecting the 

 commencement of mining operations at Chem- 

 nitz and Kremnitz. Ferber 1 , in his work on the 

 mines of Hungary, dates the opening of Chem- 

 nitz in 745, and that of Kremnitz in 770 ; 

 whereas George Agricola, who was himself chief 

 director of the mines, as well as burgomaster of 

 Chemnitz, and eminently skilled in mineralogy, 

 in his work entitled "De Re metallica," pub- 

 lished in 1561, carries the renewal of these 

 works back to a date nearly one hundred years 

 earlier. Though the simple fact of these mines 

 being opened at an early period is related, there 

 are no records that can lead to a judgment of 

 the extent of the operations, or of the portion 

 of metallic wealth they yielded. Ferber, him- 

 self a Saxon, says they were probably worked 

 by natives of Saxony. They were, however, 

 obstructed, and the works destroyed, in 1442, 

 by the Bishop of Erlau, who, at the head of 

 four thousand Poles, took possession of them 2 . 



1 See Ferber iiber die Gebirge und Bergwerke in Ungarn. 

 Berlin, 1730. 



2 There are no statistical accounts till the year 1690, when 

 a great increase is said to have taken place in the quantity of 



VOL. I. B 



