BOOK III.

75

plain by the production of much silver that veins which extend from thenorth to the south, with their heads rising toward the west, are no less richin metals than those whose heads rise toward the east.

It may be denied that the heat of the sun draws the metallic materialout of these veins ; for though it draws up vapours from the surface of theground, the rays of the sun do not penetrate right down to the depths ; becausethe air of a tunnel which is covered and enveloped by solid earth to the depth ofonly two fathoms is cold in summer, for the intermediate earth holds in checkthe force of the sun. Having observed this fact, the inhabitants and dwellersof very hot regions lie down by day in caves which protect them from theexcessive ardour of the sun. Therefore it is unlikely that the sun drawsout from within the earth the metallic bodies. Indeed, it cannot even drythe moisture of many places abounding in veins, because they are pro-tected and shaded by the trees. Furthermore, certain miners, out of allthe different kinds of metallic veins, choose those which I have described,and others, on the contrary, reject copper mines which are of this sort, sothat there seems to be no reason in this. For what can be the reason if thesun draws no copper from copper veins, that it draws silver from silver veins,and gold from gold veins ?

Moreover, some miners, of whose number was Calbus 10 , distinguishbetween the gold-bearing rivers and streams. A river, they say, or a stream,is most productive of fine and coarse grains of gold when it comes from theeast and flows to the west, and when it washes against the foot of mountainswhich are situated in the north, and when it has a level plain toward thesouth or west. In the second place, they esteem a river or a stream whichflows in the opposite course from the west toward the east, and which hasthe mountains to the north and the level plain to the south. In the thirdplace, they esteem the river or the stream which flows from the north to thesouth and washes the base of the mountains which are situated in the east.But they say that the river or stream is least productive of gold which flowsin a contrary direction from the south to the north, and washes the base of

same book he gives the following further information with regard to these mines “ Now“if all the individual mines which have proved fruitful in our own times are weighed in“ the balance, the one at Annaberg, which is known as the Himmelsch hoz, surpasses all“ others. For the value of the silver which has been dug out has been estimated at 420,000“ Rhenish gulden. Next to this comes the lead mine in Joachimsthal, whose name is the“ Sternen, from which as much silver has been dug as would be equivalent to 350,000 Rhenish“ gulden; from the Gottsgaab at Abertham, explained before, the equivalent of 300,000.“ But far before all others within our fathers’ memory stands the St. George of Schneeberg,“ whose silver has been estimated as being equal to two million Rhenish gulden.” A Rhenishgulden was about 6.9 shillings, or, say, Si.66. However, the ratio value of silver to gold atthis period was about 11.5 to one, or in other words an ounce of silver was worth about agulden, so that, for purposes of rough calculation, one might say that the silver productmentioned in gulden is practically of the same number of ounces of silver. Moreover, it mustbe remembered that the purchasing power of money was vastly greater then.

10 The following passage occurs in the Nutzlich Bergbiichlin (Chap. V.), which is interestingon account of the great similarity to Agricola’s quotation :—“ The best position of the stream istt w hen it has a cliff beside it on the north and level ground on the south, but its current shouldit from east to west—that is the most suitable. The next best after this is from west toti east > with the same position of the rocks as already stated. The third in order is when the(< stream flows from north to south with rocks toward the east, but the worst flow of waterpreparation of gold is from south to north if a rock or hill rises toward the west.”Calbus was probably the author of this booklet.