T}%
MINING IN THE
CHAP. X.
shall not estimate, however rich some of the pitsmay be found, that the annual products of thesemines could have been of very great amount.
It may be proper to remark, that though someof these mines of gold and silver which havebeen noticed were slightly worked when Bowlesvisited them, they have now entirely ceased.
Bowles says that, “ In the sand-hills of Ga-licia there are. still traces of gold; and it is asto-nishing to observe the prodigious labours whichmust have been performed to remove the sand,to wash it, and to separate the gold from it.The tradition in the province is, that the goldof this district was appropriated to the privatepurses of three Roman empresses, namely,Livia, Agrippina , and Faustina, If any learnedperson could verify and illustrate this tradition,he would enrich natural history and do honourto civil history.”
“ I know,” he says, “ that a.German minister,sometimes at a great loss, washed these sandsand collected gold from them V’
Without noticing an untouched vein of goldwhich Bowles traced in the mountains of Gua-darama opposite to St. Ildefonso, or advertingto the gold mine which Donna Isabella workedin the mountains near Talavera, we may pro-ceed to what have been the great objects of