BOOK II.

33

the superior and some the inferior parts of the veins ; to some he givesthe cross veins, to others the inclined veins. If the man who first startswork finds the vein to be metal-bearing or yielding other mining products,it will not be to his advantage to cease work because the neighbourhood maybe evil, but he will guard and defend his rights both by arms and by the law.When the Bergmeister 11 delimits the boundaries of each owner, it is the dutyof a good miner to keep within his bounds, and of a prudent one to repelencroachments of his neighbours by the help of the law. But this is enoughabout the neighbourhood.

The miner should try to obtain a mine, to which access is not difficult,in a mountainous region, gently sloping, wooded, healthy, safe, and not fardistant from a river or stream by means of which he may convey hismining products to be washed and smelted. This indeed, is the bestposition. As for the others, the nearer they approximate to this position thebetter they are ; the further removed, the worse.

Now I will discuss that kind of minerals for which it is not necessaryto dig, because the force of water carries them out of the veins. Of thesethere are two kinds, minerals—and their fragments 12 —and juices. Whenthere are springs at the outcrop of the veins from which, as I have already said,the above-mentioned products are emitted, the miner should consider thesefirst, to see whether there are metals or gems mixed with the sand, or whetherthe waters discharged are filled with juices. In case metals or gems havesettled in the pool of the spring, not only should the sand from it bewashed, but also that from the streams which flow from these springs, andeven from the river itself into which they again discharge. If the springs dis-charge water containing some juice, this also should be collected ; the furthersuch a stream has flowed from the source, the more it receives plain water andthe more diluted does it become, and so much the more deficient in strength.If the stream receives no water of another kind, or scarcely any, not onlythe rivers, but likewise the lakes which receive these waters, are of the samenature as the springs, and serve the same uses ; of this kind is the lakewhich the Hebrews call the Dead Sea, and which is quite full of bituminousfluids 13 . But I must return to the subject of the sands.

Springs may discharge their waters into a sea, a lake, a marsh, a river,or a stream ; but the sand of the sea-shore is rarely washed, for although thewater flowing down from the springs into the sea carries some metals orgems with it, yet these substances can scarcely ever be reclaimed, becausethey are dispersed through the immense body of waters and mixed up with

ll Magister Metallorum. See Note i, p. 78, for the reasons of the adoption ofthe term Bergmeister and page 95 for details of his duties.

12 Ramenta. “ Particles.” The author uses this term indifferently for fragments,particles of mineral, concentrates, gold dust, black tin, etc., in all cases the result of eithernatural or artificial concentration. As in technical English we have no general term for bothnatural and artificial “ concentrates,” we have rendered it as the context seemed to demand.

13 A certain amount of bitumen does float ashore in the Dead Sea; the origin of it is,however, uncertain. Strabo (xvi., 2, 42), Pliny (v., 15 and 16), and Josephus (iv., 8), allmention this fact. The lake for this reason is often referred to by the ancient writers by thename Asfihaltites.