BOOK IV. 89 



according as the king or prince has decreed. Further, of all the money 

 which the owner of the tunnel has spent on his tunnel while driving it 

 through a meer, the owner of that meer pays one-fourth part. If he does 

 not do so he is not allowed to make use of the drains. 



Finally, with regard to whatever veins are discovered by the owner 

 at whose expense the tunnel is driven, the right of which has not been 

 already awarded to anyone, on the application of such owner the Bergmeister 

 grants him a right of a head-meer, or of a head-meer together with the next 

 meer. Ancient custom gives the right for a tunnel to be driven in any 

 direction for an unlimited length. Further, to-day he who commences a 

 tunnel is given, on his application, not only the right over the tunnel, but 

 even the head and sometimes the next meer also. In former days the owner 

 of the tunnel obtained only so much ground as an arrow shot from the bow 

 might cover, and he was allowed to pasture cattle therein. In a case where 

 the shafts of several meers on some vein could not be worked on account of 

 the great quantity of water, ancient custom also allowed the Bergmeister to 

 grant the right of a large meer to anyone who would drive a tunnel. When, 

 however, he had driven a tunnel as far as the old shafts and had found 

 metal, he used to return to the Bergmeister and request him to bound and 

 mark off the extent of his right to a meer. Thereupon, the Bergmeister, 

 together with a certain number of citizens of the town — in whose place 

 Jurors have now succeeded — used to proceed to the mountain and mark off 

 with boundary stones a large meer, which consisted of seven double 

 measures, that is to say, it was ninety-eight fathoms long and seven wide, 

 which two numbers multiplied together make six hundred and eighty-six 

 square fathoms. 



XCVIII 



DCLXXXVI 



XCVIII 



Large Area. 



But each of these early customs has been changed, and we now employ 

 the new method. 



I have spoken of tunnels ; I will now speak about the division of owner- 

 ship in mines and tunnels. One owner is allowed to possess and to work 

 one, two, three, or more whole meers, or similarly one or more separate 

 tunnels, provided he conforms to the decrees of the laws relating to 

 metals, and to the orders of the Bergmeister. And because he alone pro- 

 vides the expenditure of money on the mines, if they yield metal he alone 

 obtains the product from them. But when large and frequent expenditures 

 are necessary in mining, he to whom the Bergmeister first gave the right 



