306 FROM BUKOREST, 
^ 
■V 
CHAP, to estimate the price according to the propor- 
> tion of the gold they contain. This kind of ore 
is always kept locked in particular warehouses ; 
and it is proportioned into different lots, which 
are placed in chests. The common ore lies 
exposed in heaps, at which labourers are seen 
busied with hammers, selecting and breaking 
it for the further operation of stamping. The 
;town, surrounded by mountains and forests, 
consists of the warehouses, washing-houses, 
stamping-mills, a council-house, a church, arid 
the dwellings of the miners, which altogether 
amount to some hundred buildings. The tem- 
perature of its elevated situation renders the 
land around Nagyag unfit for agriculture ; con- 
sequently nothing is going on, although the 
utmost activity prevails, excepting what re- 
lates to the business and interests of the mine. 
When this mine was first discovered, the moun- 
tains around it were covered with forests ; but 
the timber necessary for the works, especially 
for timbering the mine itself, has cleared the 
neighbourhood of large trees, so that wood is 
now brought from distant parts, being floated 
upon the Mar as, at the foot of the mountains. 
Deva itself is visible from this spot; and 
nothing can be more beautiful than the com- 
manding prospect here afforded of the valley 
