3i8

BOOK VIII.

the place will permit, extending in every direction more than sixty feet.Thus, when the water of the river or stream in autumn and winter inundatesthe land, the gates of the weir are closed, by which means the current carriesthe mud mixed with fine tin-stone into the area. In spring and summerthis mud is washed on the canvas strakes or on the ordinary strake, andeven the finest black-tin is collected. Within a distance of four thousandfathoms along the bed of the stream or river below the buildings in whichthe tin-stuff is washed, the miners do not make such weirs, but put inclinedfences in the meadows, and in front of each fence they dig a ditch of thesame length, so that the mud mixed with the fine tin-stone, carried along by thestream or river when in flood, may settle in the ditch and cling to the fence.When this mud is collected, it is likewise washed on canvas strakes and onthe ordinary strake, in order that the fine tin-stone may be separated fromit. Indeed we may see many such areas and fences collecting mud of thiskind in Meissen below Altenberg in the river Moglitz,—which is always of areddish colour when the rock containing the black tin is being crushed underthe stamps.

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A—River. B—Weir. C—Gate. D—Area. E—Meadow. F—Fence. G—Ditch.