MINING IN THE CHAP. X. 



Dieu, in Languedoc, were to be seen the re- 

 mains of the operations of antiquity in great 

 heaps of cinders around mines which have been 

 long exhausted, in which were found particles 

 of both lead and silver; and another lead mine 

 is to be seen near St. Sauveur, which still re- 

 tains the ancient name FArgentiere *. 



Dr. Belon, who has been before mentioned, 

 found in the department now called the Gard, 

 in 1548, about six thousand persons occupied 

 in working mines, principally in search of gold. 



He relates a strange superstition among the 

 inhabitants of that district, which, for its singu- 

 larity, may not be unfit to be noticed 2 . 



In the French division of thePyrenneen moun- 

 tains there are still the pits which led to mines 



1 Genssane, vol. i. p. 175 and 230. 



9 "The inhabitants of Pesquare," he says, "and of the 

 borders of the lake of Gard, and also of Sale, are firmly per- 

 suaded that the carp in those lakes are nourished with pure 

 gold ; and a great portion of the people in the Lyonnois are 

 fully satisfied that the fish called humble and emblons eat no 

 other food than gold. There is not a peasant in the environs 

 of the lake of Bourgil who will not maintain that the laurets, 

 a fish sold daily in Lyons, feed on pure gold alone. The 

 same is the belief of the people on the lake Paladron in 

 Savoy, and of those near Lodi." 



" But," adds the doctor, " having carefully examined the 

 stomachs of these several fishes, I have found that they lived 

 on other substances, and that from the anatomy of the stomach 

 it is impossible they should be able to digest gold." Gobet, 

 Les Anciens Mineralogistes de France, vol. ii. p. 63. 



