BOOK V.

127

neath which is the sixth stratum, likewise dark, but rough and three feetthick. Afterward occurs the seventh stratum, likewise of dark colour, butstill darker than the last, and two feet thick. This is followed by an eighthstratum, ashy, rough, and a foot thick. This kind, as also the others,is sometimes distinguished by stringers of the stone which easily melts infire of the second order. Beneath this is another ashy rock, light inweight, and five feet thick. Next to this comes a lighter ash-colouredone, a foot thick ; beneath this lies the eleventh stratum, which is dark andvery much like the seventh, and two feet thick. Below the last isa twelfth stratum of a whitish colour and soft, also two feet thick ; theweight of this rests on a thirteenth stratum, ashy and one foot thick, whoseweight is in turn supported by a fourteenth stratum, which is blackish andhalf a foot thick. There follows this, another stratum of black colour,likewise half a foot thick, which is again followed by a sixteenth stratumstill blacker in colour, whose thickness is also the same. Beneath this, andlast of all, lies the cupriferous stratum, black coloured and schistose, in whichthere sometimes glitter scales of gold-coloured pyrites in the very thin sheets,which, as I said elsewhere, often take the forms of various living things . 16

The miners mine out a vena dilatata laterally and longitudinally bydriving a low tunnel in it, and if the nature of the work and place permit, theysink also a shaft in order to discover whether there is a second vein beneaththe first one ; for sometimes beneath it there are two, three, or more similarmetal-bearing veins, and these are excavated in the same way laterally andlongitudinally. They generally mine vence dilatatce lying down; and to

1B The strata here enumerated are given in the Glossary of De Re Metallica as follows :—

Corium terrae

Die erd oder leim.

Saxum rubrum

Rot gebirge.

Alterum item rubrum

Roterkle.

Argilla cinerea

Thone.

Tertium saxum

Gerhulle.

Cineris vena

Asche.

Quartum saxum

Gniest.

Quintum saxum

Schwehlen.

Sextum saxum

Oberrauchstein.

Septimum saxum

Zechstein.

Octavum saxum

Underrauchstein.

Nonum saxum

Blitterstein.

Decimum saxum

Oberschuelen.

Undecimum saxum

Mittelstein.

Duodecimum saxum

Underschuelen.

Decimumtertium saxum

Dach.

Decimumquartum saxum

Norweg.

Decimumquintum saxum

Lotwerg.

Decimumsextum saxum

Kamme.

Lapis aerosus fissilis

Schifer

The description is no doubt that of the Mannsfeld cupriferous slates. It is of someadditional interest as the first attempt at stratigraphic distinctions, although this must notbe taken too literally, for we have rendered the different numbered " saxum ” in this connectionas ‘ stratum.” The German terms given by Agricola above, can many of them be identifiedln the miners’ terms to-day for the various strata at Mannsfeld. Over the kupferschiefer thenames to-day are kammschale, dach, faule, zechstein, rauchwacke, rauchstein, asche. Therelative thickness of these beds is much the same as given by Agricola. The stringers inhe 8th stratum of stone, which fuse in the fire of the second order, were possibly calcite.the rauchstein of the modern section is distinguished by stringers of calcite, which give it attimes a brecciated appearance.