MINING IN THE CHAP. x. 



which at the time of their discovery formed a 

 portion of Saxony, are now partly in the domi- 

 nion of Hanover, and partly in that of Bruns- 

 wick, and a small division in those of Prussia, 

 have been worked from a distant period, but 

 were certainly not known in the early ages 

 of the world. There are various conflicting 

 opinions among the learned in antiquities re- 

 specting the discovery of the mineral wealth of 

 the Hartz. The most probable accounts fix it 

 in the tenth century, and the tradition is, that a 

 hunter of the name of Ramm, when engaged in 

 the chase, had fastened his horse to a tree, who 

 by pawing with his feet had scraped away the 

 soil, and thereby discovered some minerals; that 

 specimens of them were sent to the emperor 

 Otho, to whom all minerals, as regalities of the 

 empire, belonged, and who sent expert miners to 

 examine the district, from Franconia. These 

 Franconians worked the mines for the emperor, 

 and gained him very great profits about the year 

 97^. This course proceeded till the year 1006, 

 when a famine, followed by a pestilence, caused 

 the works to cease. They were resumed ten 

 years after, in 1016, and continued at work till 

 1181, when they were closed by warlike opera- 

 tions, and continued in a state of inactivity till 

 1209. From that year they continued at work 

 with variations in their produce, till sometime 

 between 1344 and 1353, when, according to one 



