212 



BOOK VI. 



A TUNNEL. B LINEN CLOTH. 



heavier with the depth of a shaft, of which fact he has made mention, but 

 also with the length of a tunnel. 



The climbing machines of miners are ladders, fixed to one side of the shaft, 

 and these reach either to the tunnel or to the bottom of the shaft. I need not 

 describe how they are made, because they are used everywhere, and need 

 not so much skill in their construction as care in fixing them. However, 

 miners go down into mines not only by the steps of ladders, but they are 

 also lowered into them while sitting on a stick or a wicker basket, fastened to 

 the rope of one of the three drawing machines which I described at first. 

 Further, when the shafts are much inclined, miners and other workmen 

 sit in the dirt which surrounds their loins and slide down in the same way 

 that boys do in winter-time when the water on some hillside has congealed 

 with the cold, and to prevent themselves from falling, one arm is wound about 

 a rope, the upper end of which is fastened to a beam at the mouth of the shaft, 

 and the lower end to a stake fixed in the bottom of the shaft. In these three 

 ways miners descend into the shafts. A fourth way may be mentioned 

 which is employed when men and horses go down to the underground 



