THE PRODROMUS 233 



3. That the rocks or mountains have nothing in common 

 with the bones of animals except a certain resemblance in hard- 

 ness, since they agree in neither matter nor manner of pro- 

 duction, nor in composition, nor in function, if one may be 



1657 Montanari and Boni, master of the mint in Vienna, journeyed to Stiermark, Bohemia, 

 and Hungary to examine the mines. I translate : 



' They also investigated whether metals grow in the same manner as plants do, that is by 

 means of a circulating sap of the earth. They thought they knew, from the surest proofs, that 

 metals do indeed grow {crescere) — iron rather rapidly and gold more slowly. But how this 

 took place they were unable to decide, although Montanari inclined to believe that the growth 

 (maturitatein) W2is cdMStdhy zccr^tioTv^fermentationi). . . . And he made fun of the levity 

 and weakness of those who believed the testimony of George Agricola that gnomes flit and 

 wander about the mines, by whom the workmen are often disturbed.' 



Agricola (1494-1555), scientist though he was, fully believed in gnomes. Compare De Re 

 Metallica, Book VI, p. 217, edition of Hoover (London, 1912) : 



" In some of our mines, however, though in very few, there are other pernicious pests. 

 These are demons of ferocious aspect, about which I have spoken in my book De Animantibus 

 Subterraneis (the last paragraph). Demons of this kind are expelled and put to flight by 

 prayer and fasting." 



Agricola's credulity, however, did not extend to a belief in the '' growth " of mountains. On 

 the contrary, he was perhaps the first to recognize clearly the fundamental agencies of moun- 

 tain sculpture, as appears from De Ortu et Causis Subierraneorum, Book II (^De Re Metallica, 

 edition of Hoover, pp. 595, 596) : 



" Hills and mountains are produced by two forces, one of which is the power of water, and 

 the other the strength of the wind. There are three forces which loosen and demolish the 

 mountains, for in this case, to the power of the water and the strength of the wind we must 

 add the fire in the interior of the earth. Now we can plainly see that a great abundance of 

 water produces mountains, for the torrents first of all wash out the soft earth, next carry away 

 the harder earth, and then roll down the rocks, and thus in a few years they excavate the 

 plains or slopes to a considerable depth ; this may be noticed in mountainous regions even by 

 unskilled observers. By such excavation to a great depth through many ages, there rises an 

 immense eminence on each side. When an eminence has thus arisen, the earth rolls down 

 loosened by constant rain and split away by frost, and the rocks, unless they are exceedingly 

 firm, since their seams are similarly softened by the damp, roll down into the excavations 

 below. This continues until the steep eminence is changed into a slope. Each side of the 

 excavation is said to be a mountain, just as the bottom is called a valley. 



" Streams, moreover, and to a far greater extent rivers, effect the same results by their 

 rushing and washing; for this reason they are frequently seen flowing either way between 

 very high mountains which they have created, or close by the shore which borders them. . . . 

 Nor did the hollow places which now contain the seas all formerly exist, nor yet the moun- 

 tains which check and break their advance, but in many parts there was a level plain, until the 

 force of winds let loose upon it a tumultuous sea and a scathing tide. By a similar process the 

 impact of water entirely overthrows and flattens out hills and mountains. But these changes 

 of local conditions, numerous and important as they are, are not noticed by the common 

 people to be taking place at the very moment when they are happening, because, through their 

 antiquity, the time, place, and manner in which they began is far prior to human memory. 



" The wind produces hills and mountains in two ways : either when set loose and free from 

 bonds, it violently moves and agitates the sand ; or else when, after having been driven into 

 the hidden recesses of the earth by cold, as into a prison, it struggles with a great eflFort to 

 burst out. For hills and mountains are created in hot countries, whether they are situated by 



