272 MINING IN THE CHAP. X. 



shall not estimate, however rich some of the pits 

 may be found, that the annual products of these 

 mines could have been of very great amount. 



It may be proper to remark, that though some 

 of these mines of gold and silver which have 

 been noticed were slightly worked when Bowles 

 visited them, they have now entirely ceased. 



Bowles says that, " In the sand-hills of Ga- 

 licia there are still traces of gold ; and it is asto- 

 nishing to observe the prodigious labours which 

 must have been performed to remove the sand, 

 to wash it, and to separate the gold from it. 

 The tradition in the province is, that the gold 

 of this district was appropriated to the private 

 purses of three Roman empresses, namely, 

 Livia, Agrippina, and Faustina. If any learned 

 person could verify and illustrate this tradition, 

 he would enrich natural history and do honour 

 to civil history." 



" I know," he says, " that a German minister, 

 sometimes at a great loss, washed these sands 

 and collected gold from them V 



Without noticing an untouched vein of gold 

 which Bowles traced in the mountains of Gua- 

 darama opposite to St. Ildefonso, or adverting 

 to the gold mine which Donna Isabella worked 

 in the mountains near Talavera, we may pro- 

 ceed to what have been the great objects of 



1 Discurso Preliminar., page 35. 



