CHAP. X. MIDDLE AGES. 247 



The vicinity of Salzburg, comprehending a 

 great part of the Noric Alps, afforded in ancient 

 times considerable quantities of gold and some 

 silver ; and though but little has been produced 

 of late years, there are sufficient records in 

 existence to attest their productiveness down to 

 the middle of the fourteenth century. How 

 much earlier they may have been worked there 

 are now no means of ascertaining. 



At Alteriberg the metals were found in beds 

 of gneiss, in which was mingled some feldspath 

 and abundance of granite. In the year 1287, 

 Archbishop Rudolph granted them to the 

 canons of his cathedral, to whom they probably 

 yielded but little profit. In 1357, they seem to 

 have been conducted by Boestel, who was bur- 

 grave of the district; but their greatest pro- 

 ductiveness was after 1442, when they were 

 farmed out to Fredrich von Emerberg, Erhard 

 Wendelstein, and the two brothers, Sigmund 

 and Christoph Mosshammer, whose partnership 

 was prosperous to themselves, and beneficial to 

 the surrounding district. The profit gained 



to different vein stones, and assume different forms, to which 

 the names of vitreous silver ore, of red silver ore,, and white 

 silver ore, are given. 



These mines, however, as well as those of the circle of 

 Tabor at Berestadt, are at present much more explored, for 

 the sake of the cobalt and other minerals which they afford, 

 than on account of the gold and silver tjiey ever yield. See 

 Ferber Uber die Gebirge und Bergwerke in Ungarn und 

 Bohmen. Berlin, 1780. 



