Page:De re metallica (1912).djvu/75

Rh the superior and some the inferior parts of the veins; to some he gives the cross veins, to others the inclined veins. If the man who first starts work finds the vein to be metal-bearing or yielding other mining products, it will not be to his advantage to cease work because the neighbourhood may be evil, but he will guard and defend his rights both by arms and by the law. When the Bergmeister delimits the boundaries of each owner, it is the duty of a good miner to keep within his bounds, and of a prudent one to repel encroachments of his neighbours by the help of the law. But this is enough about the neighbourhood.

The miner should try to obtain a mine, to which access is not difficult, in a mountainous region, gently sloping, wooded, healthy, safe, and not far distant from a river or stream by means of which he may convey his mining products to be washed and smelted. This indeed, is the best position. As for the others, the nearer they approximate to this position the better they are; the further removed, the worse.

Now I will discuss that kind of minerals for which it is not necessary to dig, because the force of water carries them out of the veins. Of these there are two kinds, minerals and their fragments and juices. When there are springs at the outcrop of the veins from which, as I have already said, the above-mentioned products are emitted, the miner should consider these first, to see whether there are metals or gems mixed with the sand, or whether the waters discharged are filled with juices. In case metals or gems have settled in the pool of the spring, not only should the sand from it be washed, but also that from the streams which flow from these springs, and even from the river itself into which they again discharge. If the springs discharge water containing some juice, this also should be collected; the further such a stream has flowed from the source, the more it receives plain water and the more diluted does it become, and so much the more deficient in strength.

If the stream receives no water of another kind, or scarcely any, not only the rivers, but likewise the lakes which receive these waters, are of the same nature as the springs, and serve the same uses; of this kind is the lake which the Hebrews call the Dead Sea, and which is quite full of bituminous fluids. But I must return to the subject of the sands.

Springs may discharge their waters into a sea, a lake, a marsh, a river, or a stream; but the sand of the sea-shore is rarely washed, for although the water flowing down from the springs into the sea carries some metals or gems with it, yet these substances can scarcely ever be reclaimed, because they are dispersed through the immense body of waters and mixed up with