BOOK XXXIII. XXI. 71-74 



and goes round it. And yet riint is considered to 

 involve comparatively easy work, as there is a kind 

 of <'arth consisting of a sort of potter's clay mixed 

 with gravel, called gangadia, which it is almost 

 inipossible to overcome. They attack it with iron 

 wedges and the hammer-machines mentioned above ; 

 and it is thought to be the hardest thing that exists, 

 except greed for gold, which is the most stubborn of 

 all things. When the work is completely finished, 

 beginning with the last, they cut through, at the 

 tops, the supports of the arched roofs. A crack 

 gives warning of a crash, and the only person who 

 notices it is the sentinel on a pinnacle of the mountain. 

 He by shout and gesture gives the order for the 

 workmen to be called out and himself at the same 

 moment flies down from his pinnacle. The fractured 

 mountain falls asunder in a wide gap, with a crash 

 which it is impossible for human imagination to 

 conceive, and likewise with an incredibly violent 

 blast of air. The miners gaze as conquerors upon 

 the collapse of Nature. And nevertheless even now 

 there is no gold so far, nor did they positively know 

 there was any when they began to dig ; the mere 

 hope of obtaining their coveted object was a sutficient 

 inducement for encountering such great dangers 

 and expenses. 



Another equally laborious task involving even 

 greater expense is the incidental operation of 

 previously bringing streams along mountain-heights 

 frequently a distance of 100 miles for the purpose of 

 washing away the debris of this collapse ; the 

 channels made for this purpose are called cornigi, 

 a term derived I beheve from co?irivatio, a uniting of 

 streams of water. This also involves a thousand 



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VOL. IX. C 



