i68 



BOOK VI. 



fixed, so that it may be raised as much as is convenient. Above this wheel 

 there are boards to prevent the water from dripping down and wetting it, for 

 if it becomes wet the brake will not grip the machine so well. Near the 

 other drum is a pin from which hangs a chain, in the last link of which there 

 is an iron hook three feet long ; a ring is fixed to the bottom of the bucket, 

 and this hook, being inserted into it, holds the bucket back so that the water 

 may be poured out or the fragments of rock emptied. 



The miners either carry, draw, or roll down the mountains the ore which 

 is hauled out of the shafts by these five machines or taken out of the 

 tunnels. In the winter time our people place a box on a sledge and draw 

 it down the low mountains with a horse ; and in this season they 

 also fill sacks made of hide and load them on dogs, or place two or 

 three of them on a small sledge which is higher in the fore part and lower at 

 the back. Sitting on these sacks, not without risk of his life, the bold 

 driver guides the sledge as it rushes down the mountain into the valleys with 

 a stick, which he carries in his hand ; when it is rushing down too 

 quickly he arrests it with the stick, or with the same stick brings it back to 

 the track when it is turning aside from its proper course. Some of the 



A —Sledge with box pl.\ced on it. B — Sledge with sacks placed on it. C- 

 D— Dogs with pack-saddles. E — Pig-skin sacks tied to a rope. 



-Stick. 



