Page:De re metallica (1912).djvu/148

106 I have spoken of shafts, tunnels, and drifts. I will now speak of the indications given by the canales, by the materials which are dug out, and by the rocks. These indications, as also many others which I will explain, are to a great extent identical in venae dilatatae and venae cumulatae with venae profundae.

When a stringer junctions with a main vein and causes a swelling, a shaft should be sunk at the junction. But when we find the stringer intersecting the main vein crosswise or obliquely, if it descends vertically down to the depths of the earth, a second shaft should be sunk to the point where the stringer cuts the main vein; but if the stringer cuts it obliquely the shaft should be two or three fathoms back, in order that the junction may be pierced lower down. At such junctions lies the best hope of finding the ore for the sake of which we explore the ground, and if ore has already been found, it is usually found in much greater abundance at that spot. Again, if several stringers descend into the earth, the miner, in order to pierce through the point of contact, should sink the shaft in the midst of these stringers, or else calculate on the most prominent one.

Since an inclined vein often lies near a vertical vein, it is advisable to sink a shaft at the spot where a stringer or cross-vein cuts them both; or where a vena dilatata or a stringer dilatata passes through, for minerals are usually found there. In the same way we have a good prospect of finding metal at the point where an inclined vein joins a vertical one; this is why miners cross-cut the hangingwall or footwall of a main vein, and in these openings seek for a vein which may junction with the principal vein a few fathoms below. Nay, further, these same miners, if no stringer or crossvein intersects the main vein so that they can follow it in their workings, even cross-cut through the solid rock of the hangingwall or footwall. These cross-cuts are likewise called “κρυπταί” whether the beginning of the opening which has to be undertaken is made from a tunnel or from a drift.

Miners have some hope when only a cross vein cuts a main vein. Further, if a vein which cuts the main vein obliquely does not appear anywhere beyond it, it is advisable to dig into that side of the main vein toward which the oblique vein inclines, whether the right or left side, that we may ascertain if the main vein has absorbed it; if after cross-cutting six fathoms it is not found, it is advisable to dig on the other side of the main vein, that we may know for certain whether it has carried it forward. The owners of a main vein can often dig no less profitably on that side where the vein which cuts the main vein again appears, than where it first cuts it; the owners of the intersecting vein, when that is found again, recover their title, which had in a measure been lost.

The common miners look favourably upon the stringers which come from the north and join the main vein; on the other hand, they look unfavourably upon those which come from the south, and say that these do much harm to the main vein, while the former improve it. But I think that miners should not neglect either of them: as I showed in Book III, experience does not confirm those who hold this opinion about veins, so now