CHAP. X.
MIDDLE AGES.
245
been taken out, whilst those of inferior qualityhad been left behind. In speaking of the gold-washings in the Temeswarer Bannat, he says,the operations were performed exclusively bythe gipsies, who display great skill in finding it.They dig chiefly on the banks of the river Nera,where more gold is found than in the bottom ofthe stream. There are many remains of ancientworkings, which are deemed by the baron to bethe sources from which the small particles whichwere brought down by the stream were deposited.He found also, in the vicinity of Boschowitz,other gipsies washing the sands for gold. Ineach spot he made his calculations, and theysatisfied him that the produce did not pay forthe labour that was employed on it h
In the Facebajer mountains also, the baronsays, he found many evidences of ancient work-ings, which he judges must have been executedwhen slaves and convicts were employed in themines. He infers this from the great labourwhich the work must have required before theuse of gunpowder was known; for the passages,which are three hundred fathoms in length,and six feet in height and breadth, are carriedthrough a bed of hornstein by the help of thepickaxe, chisel, and mallet alone. He infersfrom the accurate direction of the galleries, that