BOOK VI. 



157 



A — Small batea. B — Rope. C— Large batea. 



their necks. Pliny ^ is our authority that among the ancients everything 

 which was mined was carried out on men's shoulders, but in truth this 

 method of carrying forth burdens is onerous, since it causes great fatigue 

 to a great number of men, and involves a large expenditure for labour ; for 

 this reason it has been rejected and abandoned in our day. The length of 

 the larger batea is as much as three feet, the width up to a foot and a palm. 

 In these bateas the metallic earth is washed for the purpose of testing it. 



Water-vessels differ both in the use to which they are put and in the 

 material of which they are made ; some draw the water from the shafts and 

 pour it into other things, as dippers ; while some of the vessels filled with 

 water are drawn out b}^ machines, as buckets and bags ; some are made of 

 wood, as the dippers and buckets, and others of hides, as the bags. The 

 water-buckets, just like the buckets which are filled with dry material, are of 

 two kinds, the smaller and the larger , but these are unlike the other buckets at 

 the top, as in this case they are narrower, in order that the water may not be 

 spilled by being bumped against the timbers when they are being drawn out 

 of the shafts, especially those considerably inclined. The water is poured 

 into these buckets bj^ dippers, which are small wooden buckets, but unlike the 

 water-buckets, they are neither narrow at the top nor bound with iron hoops, 

 but with hazel, — because there is no necessity for either. The smaller buckets 

 are drawn up by machines turned by men, the larger ones by those turned by 

 horses. 



^Pliny (xxxni., 21). " The fragments are carried on workmen's shoulders ; night 

 " and day each passes the material to his neighbour, only the last of them seeing the daylight." 



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