330 FROM THE CAPITAL OF THE BAN NAT, 
CHAP, antiquity ; and it is probably practised now, by 
- these Gipsies, as it was by the Romans in the 
same country. It consists in nothing more 
than pouring the sand, mixed with water, over 
an inclined plane ; the heavier particles of the 
gold remaining upon the surface, while the 
lighter siliceous particles and impurities are 
washed away. This, in fact, is the plan pur- 
sued in the great washing-houses at Schemnitz, 
only upon a larger scale. Sometimes the 
inclined plane is covered with woollen cloth, to 
which the gold adheres : wanting the cloth, the 
Gipsies now and then use, for the same purpose, 
the more antient substitute of a Jleece. The 
manner of collecting gold-dust in sheep^s fleeces, 
upon inclined planes, is represented in the 
curious old work of George Agricola\ In the 
rivers of Colchis, the custom is still retained of 
placing sheep-skins in the beds of the Phasis, and 
other auriferous streams, to collect particles of 
gold : hence the dedication of such fleeces to the 
Gods, and the fabulous history of the Argonautce 
as far as it related to the golden fleece. The 
more common manipulation among the Gipsies 
of the Bannat is very like that of fValachia, 
(1) Georgii Agricola de Re Metallic^, Libri 12. &c. p. 262. 
Basil. 1657. 
