BOOK VI. 169 



Noricians 11 collect ore during the winter into sacks made of bristly pigskins, 

 and drag them down from the highest mountains, which neither horses, 

 mules nor asses can climb. Strong dogs, that are trained to bear pack 

 saddles, carry these sacks when empty into the mountains. When they 

 are filled with ore, bound with thongs, and fastened to a rope, a man, 

 winding the rope round his arm or breast, drags them down through the 

 snow to a place where horses, mules, or asses bearing pack-saddles can 

 climb. There the ore is removed from the pigskin sacks and put into other 

 sacks made of double or triple twilled linen thread, and these placed on the 

 pack-saddles of the beasts are borne down to the works where the ores 

 are washed or smelted. If, indeed, the horses, mules, or asses are able 

 to climb the mountains, linen sacks filled with ore are placed on their saddles, 

 and they carry these down the narrow mountain paths, which are passable 

 neither by wagons nor sledges, into the valleys lying below the steeper 

 portions of the mountains. But on the declivity of cliffs which beasts cannot 

 climb, are placed long open boxes made of planks, with transverse cleats to 

 hold them together ; into these boxes is thrown the ore which has been 

 brought in wheelbarrows, and when it has run down to the level it is gathered 

 into sacks, and the beasts either carry it away on their backs or drag it away 

 after it has been thrown into sledges or wagons. When the drivers bring 

 ore down steep mountain slopes they use two-wheeled carts, and they drag 

 behind them on the ground the trunks of two trees, for these by their weight 

 hold back the heavily-laden carts, which contain ore in their boxes, and check 

 their descent, and but for these the driver would often be obliged to 

 bind chains to the wheels. When these men bring down ore from mountains 

 which do not have such declivities, they use wagons whose beds are twice 

 as long as those of the carts. The planks of these are so put together that, 

 when the ore is unloaded by the drivers, they can be raised and taken apart, 

 for they are only held together by bars. The drivers employed by the owners 

 of the ore bring down thirty or sixty wagon-loads, and the master of the 

 works marks on a stick the number of loads for each driver. But some 

 ore, especially tin, after being taken from the mines, is divided into eight 

 parts, or into nine, if the owners of the mine give " ninth parts " to the 

 owners of the tunnel. This is occasionally done by measuring with a bucket, 

 but more frequently planks are put together on a spot where, with the 

 addition of the level ground as a base, it forms a hollow box. Each owner 

 provides for removing, washing, and smelting that portion which has fallen 

 to him. (Illustration p. 170). 



Into the buckets, drawn by these five machines, the boys or men throw 

 the earth and broken rock with shovels, or they fill them with their hands ; 

 hence they get their name of shovellers. As I have said, the same 

 machines raise not only dry loads, but also wet ones, or water ; but before 

 I explain the varied and diverse kinds of machines by which miners are wont 



"Ancient Noricum covered the region of modern Tyrol, with parts of Bavaria, 

 Salzburg, etc. 



