€4 Froceeditig^ of the Roijal Irish Academy. 



for the scale on whicli it has been exploited by the Romans. The 

 extent of these workings is evinced by numerous mounds of dehris, 

 and by the lofty escarpment of several hundred feet ; that, allowing 

 for subsequent sub-£erial erosion, mark the quantity of matter removed. 

 Although barometric observations showed the summit of these deposits 

 to be some 1090 feet above the bed of the Cabrera, at San-Domingo 

 Mores ; the bed of this ascends so rapidly that the ancient miners 

 were able to obtain water by a series of canals, stated to tap the river 

 at distances from 16 to 25 miles. Much of these canals, it is said, 

 still exist and could be repaired with little expense. In the upper 

 levels of the alluvial, there are at places tunnels or galleries which 

 would seem to have been used partly as water conducts. At Medullas, 

 as elsewhere, the alluvial consists of earth and gravel IrigMly coloured 

 ly oxide of won. At Quintanilla, some 9 miles from Astorga, there 

 are numerous vestiges of Roman alluvial, and in the neighboui'hood 

 there is said to be an amiferous reef which was worked by the 

 ancients." 



These details, given by a mining engineer, show at once the 

 importance and antiquity of the auiiferous district he describes, and 

 thus allow of its historical and archaeological interest being appre- 

 ciated. Although he only speaks of the Roman remains found in the 

 waste heaps, it is not consequently to be inferred that the deposits 

 and the ground which yielded them were not worked before the arrival 

 of the Romans. On the contrary, the fact of the Romans having 

 undertaken such vast works on them, leads to the presumption that 

 they must have been extensive and highly productive before their 

 time, just as in the case of the Rio Tinto mines in Andalusia, where, 

 along with vast masses of scoria undoubtedly Roman, there are found 

 waste heaps equally vast, which show by their different percentage in 

 copper and other remains of tools, etc., the treatment by a people 

 anterior to the Romans, and considered to have been, at least, Phoe- 

 nician, or some such people. This district has, by some, been identi- 

 fied with the Tarsish of the time of Solomon. 



By what race or races the gold was mainly worked in Asturias 

 before the arrival of the Romans is not, at once, evident ; most 

 probably it was by a race of mountaineers, accustomed to the piu'suit 

 of the metal, having the tradition of the methods proper to this class 

 of work, and content to carry it on as a livelihood for very small 

 earnings, as at present is the case, both in this district and in many 

 hold- washing districts of the world. As bearing to some extent upon 

 this point, the article on " Mining in Asturias " (" Gold Mines of the 



