CHAP. x. MIDDLE AGES. 



been taken out, whilst those of inferior quality 

 had been left behind. In speaking of the gold- 

 washings in the Temeswarer Bannat, he says, 

 the operations were performed exclusively by 

 the gipsies, who display great skill in finding it. 

 They dig chiefly on the banks of the river Nera, 

 where more gold is found than in the bottom of 

 the stream. There are many remains of ancient 

 workings, which are deemed by the baron to be 

 the sources from which the small particles which 

 were brought down by the stream were deposited. 

 He found also, in the vicinity of Boschowitz, 

 other gipsies washing the sands for gold. In 

 each spot he made his calculations, and they 

 satisfied him that the produce did not pay for 

 the labour that was employed on it 1 . 



In the Facebajer mountains also, the baron 

 says, he found many evidences of ancient work- 

 ings, which he judges must have been executed 

 when slaves and convicts were employed in the 

 mines. He infers this from the great labour 

 which the work must have required before the 

 use of gunpowder was known; for the passages, 

 which are three hundred fathoms in length, 

 and six feet in height and breadth, are carried 

 through a bed of hornstein by the help of the 

 pickaxe, chisel, and mallet alone. He infers 

 from the accurate direction of the galleries, that 



1 Bern's Briefe iiber Gold waschereyen in Bannat. 



