MINING IN THE CHAP. X. 



per : they were the chief sources of mineral 

 wealth through the middle ages. Their produce 

 in no instances and in no periods seems to have 

 been large, when compared with what was yielded 

 in distant ages in Egypt, in Spain, in Asia, and 

 in Thrace, and in modern times in Mexico and 

 Peru. But their effect on the transactions of 

 the world must be contemplated, not by what 

 they would produce on the stock of gold and 

 silver in existence in the time of Augustus or in 

 the present day, but by what they must have 

 produced on the very small amount of the pre- 

 cious metals which was possessed at the time of 

 their respective workings. 



Saxony. The mines of Saxony were first discovered in 

 the tenth century, when the whole district in 

 which they are situated was covered with wood, 

 and without inhabitants l . Some carriers from 

 Halle, on their way to Bohemia, where they 

 carried salt, observing metallic substances in the 

 tracks made by the wheels, some of these were 

 taken up and sent to Goslar to be examined, 

 when they were found to consist of lead with a 

 considerable quantity of silver. This led to the 

 establishments for mining, which have continued, 

 with some variations in their products, from the 

 year 1169 to the present day. For some years, 



1 Merkel's und Engelhardt's Erdebeschreibung von Kur- 

 sachsen. Vol. i. p. 99. 



