496 BOOK XI. 



fourth long wall, is placed a tie-beam which reaches from the first set of 

 middle rafters to the second set of middle rafters ; upon the tie-beams is 

 placed a gutter hollowed out from a tree. Then from the back of each of 

 the first set of middle rafters a beam six feet long reaches almost to the gutter ; 

 to the lower end of this beam is attached a piece of wood two feet long ; 

 this is repeated with each rafter of the first set of middle rafters. Similarly 

 from the back of each rafter of the second set of middle rafters a little beam, 

 seven feet long, reaches almost to the gutter ; to the lower end of it 

 is likewise attached a short piece of wood ; this is repeated on each rafter 

 of the second set of middle rafters. Then in the upper part, to the first and 

 second sets of principal rafters are fastened long boards, upon which are 

 fixed the burnt tiles ; and in the same manner, in the middle part, they are 

 fastened to the first and second sets of middle rafters, and at the' lower part to 

 the little beams which reach from each rafter of the first and second set of 

 middle rafters almost to the gutter ; and, finally, to the little boards fastened 

 to the short pieces of wood are fixed shingles of pinewood extending into the 

 gutter, so that the violent rain or melted snow may not penetrate into the 

 building. The substructures in the interior which support the second set of 

 rafters, and those on the opposite side which support the third, being not 

 unusual, I need not explain. 



In that part of the building against the second long wall are the 

 furnaces, in which exhausted liquation cakes which have already been 

 " dried " are smelted, that they may recover once again the appearance 

 and colour of copper, inasmuch as they really are copper. The remainder 

 of the room is occupied by the passage which leads from the door to the 

 furnaces, together with two other furnaces, in one of which the whole cakes 

 of copper are heated, and in the other the exhausted liquation cakes are 

 " dried " by the heat of the fire. 



Likewise, in the room between the third and seventh^ transverse walls, 

 two posts are erected on rock foundation ; both of them are eight feet high 

 and two feet wide and thick. The one is at a distance of thirteen feet from 

 the second long wall ; the other at the same distance from the third long wall ; 

 there is a distance of thirteen feet between them. Upon these two posts and 

 upon the third transverse wall are laid two longitudinal beams, forty-one feet 

 and one palm long, and two feet wide and thick. Two other beams of the 

 same length, width, and thickness are laid upon the upright posts and upon 

 the seventh transverse wall, and the heads of the two long beams, where they 

 meet, are joined with iron staples. On these longitudinal beams are again 

 placed twenty-one transverse beams, thirteen feet long, a foot wide, and three 

 palms thick, of which the first is set on the third transverse wall, and the last 

 on the seventh transverse waU ; the rest are laid in the space between these 

 two, and they are distant from one another three feet. Into the ends of 

 the transverse beams which face the second long wall, are mortised the 

 ends of the same number of rafters erected toward the upright posts 

 which are placed upon the second long wall, and in this manner is made 



^In the original text this is given as the " fifth," a manifest impossibility. 



