BOOK IV. 99 



x 



I will now leave the manager, and discuss him who controls the workmen 

 of the mine, who is therefore called the foreman, although some call him 

 the watchman. It is he who distributes the work among the labourers, and 

 sees diligently that each faithfully and usefully performs his duties. He 

 also discharges workmen on account of incompetence, or negligence, and 

 supplies others in their places if the two Jurors and manager give their 

 consent. He must be skilful in working wood, that he may timber shafts, 

 place posts, and make underground structures capable of supporting an under- 

 mined mountain, lest the rocks from the hangingwall of the veins, not being 

 supported, become detached from the mass of the mountain and over- 

 whelm the workmen with destruction. He must be able to make and lay 

 out the drains in the tunnels, into which the water from the veins, stringers, 

 and seams in the rocks may collect, that it may be properly guided and 

 can flow away. Further, he must be able to recognize veins and stringers, 

 so as to sink shafts to the best advantage, and must be able to discern one 

 kind of material which is mined from another, or to train his subordinates 

 that they may separate the materials correctly. He must also be well 

 acquainted with all methods of washing, so as to teach the washers how 

 the metalliferous earth or sand is washed. He supplies the miners with iron 

 tools when they are about to start to work in the mines, and apportions a 

 certain weight of oil for their lamps, and trains them to dig to the best 

 advantage, and sees that they work faithfully. When their shift is finished, 

 he takes back the oil which has been left. On account of his numerous and 

 important duties and labours, only one mine is entrusted to one foreman, 

 nay, rather sometimes two or three foremen are set over one mine. 



Since I have mentioned the shifts, I will briefly explain how these are 

 carried on. The twenty-four hours of a day and night are divided into three 

 shifts, and each shift consists of seven hours. The three remaining hours are 

 intermediate between the shifts, and form an interval during which the 

 workmen enter and leave the mines. The first shift begins at the fourth hour 

 in the morning and lasts till the eleventh hour ; the second begins at the 

 twelfth and is finished at the seventh ; these two are day shifts in the 

 morning and afternoon. The third is the night shift, and commences at the 

 eighth hour in the evening and finishes at the third in the morning. The 

 Bergmeister does not allow this third shift to be imposed upon the workmen 

 unless necessity demands it. In that case, whether they draw water from 

 the shafts or mine the ore, they keep their vigil by the night lamps, and to 

 prevent themselves falling asleep from the late hours or from fatigue, they 

 lighten their long and arduous labours by singing, which is neither wholly 

 untrained nor unpleasing. In some places one miner is not allowed to 

 undertake two shifts in succession, because it often happens that he either 

 falls asleep in the mine, overcome by exhaustion from too much labour, or 

 arrives too late for his shift, or leaves sooner than he ought. Elsewhere he 

 is allowed to do so, because he cannot subsist on the pay of one shift, 

 especially if provisions grow dearer. The Bergmeister does not, however, 

 forbid an extraordinary shift when he concedes only one ordinary shift. 



