BOOK VI. 



157 



A — Small batea. B — Rope. C— Large batea. 



their necks. Pliny^ is our authority that among the ancients everything 



which was mined was carried out on men's shoulders, but in truth this 



method of carrying forth burdens is onerous, since it causes great fatigue 



to a great number of men, and involves a large expenditure for labour ; for 



this reason it has been rejected and abandoned in our day. The length of 



the larger batea is as much as three feet, the width up to a foot and a palm. 



In these bateas the metallic earth is washed for the purpose of testing it. 



Water-vessels differ both in the use to which they are put and in the 



material of which they are made ; some draw the water from the shafts and 



pour it into other things, as dippers ; while some of the vessels fiUed with 



water are drawn out by machines, as buckets and bags ; some are made of 



wood, as the dippers and buckets, and others of hides, as the bags. The 



water-buckets, just like the buckets which are filled with dry material, are of 



two kinds, the smaller and the larger , but these are unlike the other buckets at 



the top, as in this case they are narrower, in order that the water may not be 



spilled by being bumped against the timbers when they are being drawn out 



of the shafts, especially those considerably inclined. The water is poured 



into these buckets by dippers, which are small wooden buckets, but unlike the 



water-buckets, they are neither narrow at the top nor bound with iron hoops, 



but with hazel, — because there is no necessity for either. The smaller buckets 



are drawn up by machines turned by men, the larger ones by those turned by 



horses. 



'Pliny (xxxm., 21). " The fragments are carried on workmen's shoulders ; night 

 " and day each passes the material to his neighbour, only the last of them seeing the daylight." 



