86 



BOOK IV. 



out when a torrent or some other force of Nature has laid open a vena 

 dilatata in a valley, so that it appears either on the slope of a mountain 

 or hill or on a plain. Elsewhere the Bergmeister doubles the width of the 

 head-meer and it is made fourteen fathoms wide, while the width of each of 

 the other meers remains single, that is seven fathoms, but the length is not 

 denned by boundaries. In some places the head-meer consists of three 

 double measures, but has a width of fourteen fathoms and a length of 

 twenty-one. 



XXI 



X 



XXI 

 SHAPE OF A HEAD-MEER. 



In the same way, every other meer is composed of two measures, 

 doubled in the same fashion, so that it is fourteen fathoms in width and 

 of the same length. 



XIIII 



XIIII 

 SHAPE OF EVERY OTHER MEER. 



ditions, amounting to forfeiture for failure to operate the mine for a period of nine weeks. 

 Space does not permit of the elaboration of the details of this subject, which we hope to 

 pursue elsewhere in its many historical bearings. Among these we may mention that if the 

 American "Apex law" is of English descent, it must be laid to the door of Derbyshire, and 

 not of Cornwall, as is generally done. Our own belief, however, is that the American 

 " apex " conception came straight from Germany. 



It is not our purpose to follow these inquiries into mining law beyond the i5th century, 

 but we may point out that with the growth of the sentiment of individualism the miners and 

 landlords obtained steadily wider and wider rights at the cost of the State, until well within 

 the igth century. The growth of stronger communal sentiment since the middle of the last 

 century has already found its manifestation in the legislation with regard to mines, for the 

 laws of South Africa, Australia, and England, and the agitation in the United States are all 

 toward greater restrictions on the mineral ownership in favour of the State. 



