CHAP. X 



MIDDLE AGES. 26? 



the precious metals seems either to have ceased 

 or to have diminished at least there are no ac- 

 counts of any mines being worked under the 

 Suevic or under the Gothic monarchs who at 

 length governed that country, nor any traces of 

 works in mines at this time to be seen, that are 

 not evidently of Roman, of Moorish, or of more 

 modern construction. 



The works of the Romans in some parts are 

 so obliterated, and the scoriae and ashes so de- 

 composed or covered with soil, as to be nearly 

 untraceable except by acute observers. Bowles, 

 of English origin, but one of the best Spanish 

 writers on natural history, speaking of some 

 great caverns between Ronda and Gibraltar, 

 says, " Many people believe, without any reason, 

 that these excavations are the work of the 

 Moors; but there is good reason to conclude 

 that they are the work of ages long prior to the 

 invasion of Spain by that people V He then 

 proceeds to give his reasons for this opinion : 

 On the Spanish as well as on the French side of 

 the Pyrennees, the remains of the shafts dug by 

 the Romans are distinguished from those of 

 Moorish work by their shape the tirst being 

 round, the second square; which Bowles accounts 

 for by supposing that the Romans constructed 



1 La Historia natural y la Geografia fisica de Espana, 

 p. 30. 



