284 MINING IN THE 



CHAP. X. 



nations. 



worked through the summer months, and only 

 four or five workmen are employed in the winter. 

 The produce, as stated to M. Balbi by Vandelli, 

 director of the mines of the kingdom, is small ; 

 being, in the year 1815, 411bs. of pure gold; in 

 1816, 18lbs. ; in 1817, lllbs. ; in 1818, 12lbs. ; 

 in 1819, 13lbs. ; in 1820, 12lbs. ; and in 1821, 

 ISlbs 1 . 



Northern ^ ne northern nations of Europe appear to 

 have possessed more gold and silver than was 

 to be found in Germany, France, or the British 

 Isles in the middle ages. The Danes or Nor- 

 men, who subdued several of the countries to 

 the south of them, and committed extensive 

 piracies on others, had been enabled to collect 

 a quantity of treasure, much of which was ex- 

 pended in ornamenting their arms, and in deco- 

 rating the vessels which they equipped for their 

 several predatory expeditions. 



We have in an anonymous writer, a contem- 

 porary of Canute, a description in the Latin lan- 

 guage of the fleet with which that prince sailed 

 to take possession of the throne of England 2 . 

 It is entitled " A Panegyric on Emma, Queen 

 of England," who was the wife of Canute. " On 

 the stern of the ships," he says, " lions of molten 



1 Essai Statistique sur le Royaume de Portugal, par Adrien 

 Balbi, vol. i. p. 136. 



4 Ernmse,, Anglorum Reginte Encomium, p. 166 168. 



