CHAP. 21. (4.)—HOW GOLD IS FOUND.
Gold is found in our own part of the world; not to mention
the gold extracted from the earth in India by the ants,
1 and
in Scythia by the Griffins.
2 Among us it is procured in
three different ways; the first of which is, in the shape of
dust, found in running streams, the Tagus
3 in Spain, for instance,
the Padus in Italy, the Hebrus in Thracia, the Pactolus in
Asia, and the Ganges in India; indeed, there is no gold found
in a more perfect state than this, thoroughly polished as it is
by the continual attrition of the current.
A second mode of obtaining gold is by sinking shafts or seeking
it among the debris of mountains; both of which methods
it will be as well to describe. The persons in search of gold
in the first place remove the "segutilum,"
4 such being the
name of the earth which gives indication of the presence of
gold. This done, a bed is made, the sand of which is washed,
and, according to the residue found after washing, a conjecture
is formed as to the richness of the vein. Sometimes, indeed,
gold is found at once in the surface earth, a success, however,
but rarely experienced. Recently, for instance, in the reign of
Nero, a vein was discovered in Dalmatia, which yielded daily
as much as fifty pounds' weight of gold. The gold that is
thus found in the surface crust is known as "talutium,"
5 in
cases where there is auriferous earth beneath. The mountains
of Spain,
6 in other respects arid and sterile, and productive of
nothing whatever, are thus constrained by man to be fertile,
in supplying him with this precious commodity.
The gold that is extracted from shafts is known by some
persons as "canalicium," and by others as "canaliense;"
7 it
is found adhering to the gritty crust of marble,
8 and, altogether
different from the form in which it sparkles in the sapphirus
9
of the East, and in the stone of Thebais
10 and other gems, it
is seen interlaced with the molecules of the marble. The
channels of these veins are found running in various directions
along the sides of the shafts, and hence the name of the gold
they yield—"canalicium."
11 In these shafts, too, the superincumbent
earth is kept from falling in by means of wooden
pillars. The substance that is extracted is first broken up,
and then washed; after which it is subjected to the action of
fire, and ground to a fine powder. This powder is known as
"apitascudes," while the silver which becomes disengaged in
the
12 furnace has the name of "sudor"
13 given to it. The im-
purities that escape by the chimney, as in the case of all
other metals, are known by the name of "scoria." In the
case of gold, this scoria is broken up a second time, and melted
over again. The crucibles used for this purpose are made of
"tasconium,"
14 a white earth similar to potter's clay in appearance;
there being no other substance capable of with-standing
the strong current of air, the action of the fire, and
the intense heat of the melted metal.
The third method of obtaining gold surpasses the labours
of the Giants
15 even: by the aid of galleries driven to a long
distance, mountains are excavated by the light of torches, the
duration of which forms the set times for work, the workmen
never seeing the light of day for many months together.
These mines are known as "arrugiæ;"
16 and not unfrequently
clefts are formed on a sudden, the earth sinks in, and the workmen
are crushed beneath; so that it would really appear less rash
to go in search of pearls and purples at the bottom of the sea,
so much more dangerous to ourselves have we made the earth
than the water! Hence it is, that in this kind of mining,
arches are left at frequent intervals for the purpose of supporting
the weight of the mountain above. In mining either
by shaft or by gallery, barriers of silex are met with, which
have to be driven asunder by the aid of fire and vinegar;
17 or
more frequently, as this method fills the galleries with suffocating
vapours and smoke, to be broken to pieces with bruising-
machines
shod with pieces of iron weighing one hundred and
fifty pounds: which done, the fragments are carried out on the
workmen's shoulders, night and day, each man passing them
on to his neighbour in the dark, it being only those at the pit's
mouth that ever see the light. In cases where the bed of silex
appears too thick to admit of being penetrated, the miner traces
along the sides of it, and so turns it. And yet, after all, the labour
entailed by this silex is looked upon as comparatively easy, there
being an earth—a kind of potter's clay mixed with gravel,
"gangadia" by name, which it is almost impossible to overcome.
This earth has to be attacked with iron wedges and hammers
like those previously mentioned,
18 and it is generally considered
that there is nothing more stubborn in existence—except indeed
the greed for gold, which is the most stubborn of all things.
When these operations are all completed, beginning at the
last, they cut away
19 the wooden pillars at the point where
they support the roof: the coming downfall gives warning,
which is instantly perceived by the sentinel, and by him only,
who is set to watch upon a peak of the same mountain. By
voice as well as by signals, he orders the workmen to be immediately
summoned from their labours, and at the same
moment takes to flight himself. The mountain, rent to pieces,
is cleft asunder, hurling its debris to a distance with a crash
which it is impossible for the human imagination to conceive;
and from the midst of a cloud of dust, of a density quite incredible,
the victorious miners gaze upon this downfall of
Nature. Nor yet even then are they sure of gold, nor indeed
were they by any means certain that there was any to be
found when they first began to excavate, it being quite sufficient,
as an inducement to undergo such perils and to incur
such vast expense, to entertain the hope that they shall obtain
what they so eagerly desire.
Another labour, too, quite equal to this, and one which entails
even greater expense, is that of bringing rivers
20 from
the more elevated mountain heights, a distance in many instances
of one hundred miles perhaps, for the purpose of
washing these debris. The channels thus formed are called
"corrugi," from our word "corrivatio,"
21 I suppose; and even
when these are once made, they entail a thousand fresh labours.
The fall, for instance, must be steep, that the water may be
precipitated, so to say, rather than flow; and it is in this
manner that it is brought from the most elevated points.
Then, too, vallies and crevasses have to be united by the aid of
aqueducts, and in another place impassable rocks have to be
hewn away, and forced to make room for hollowed troughs of
wood; the person hewing them hanging suspended all the
time with ropes, so that to a spectator who views the operations
from a distance, the workmen have all the appearance, not so
much of wild beasts, as of birds upon the wing.
22 Hanging
thus suspended in most instances, they take the levels, and
trace with lines the course the water is to take; and thus,
where there is no room even for man to plant a footstep, are
rivers traced out by the hand of man. The water, too, is considered
in an unfit state for washing, if the current of the
river carries any mud along with it. The kind of earth that
yields this mud is known as "urium;"
23 and hence it is that
in tracing out these channels, they carry the water over beds
of silex or pebbles, and carefully avoid this urium. When
they have reached the head of the fall, at the very brow of the
mountain, reservoirs are hollowed out, a couple of hundred
feet in length and breadth, and some ten feet in depth. In
these reservoirs there are generally five sluices left, about
three feet square; so that, the moment the reservoir is filled, the
floodgates are struck away, and the torrent bursts forth with
such a degree of violence as to roll onwards any fragments of
rock which may obstruct its passage.
When they have reached the level ground, too, there is
still another labour that awaits them. Trenches—known as
"agogæ"
24—have to be dug for the passage of the water; and
these, at regular intervals, have a layer of ulex placed at the
bottom. This ulex
25 is a plant like rosemary in appearance,
rough and prickly, and well-adapted for arresting any pieces
of gold that may be carried along. The sides, too, are closed
in with planks, and are supported by arches when carried over
steep and precipitous spots. The earth, carried onwards in
the stream, arrives at the sea at last, and thus is the shattered
mountain washed away; causes which have greatly tended to
extend the shores of Spain by these encroachments upon the
deep. It is also by the agency of canals of this description
that the material, excavated at the cost of such immense labour
by the process previously described,
26 is washed and car-
ried away; for otherwise the shafts would soon be choked up
by it.
The gold found by excavating with galleries does not require
to be melted, but is pure gold at once. In these excavations,
too, it is found in lumps, as also in the shafts which are sunk,
sometimes exceeding ten pounds even. The names given to
these lumps are "palagæ," and "palacurnæ,"
27 while the gold
found in small grains is known as "baluce." The ulex that
is used for the above purpose is dried and burnt, after which
the ashes of it are washed upon a bed of grassy turf, in order
that the gold may be deposited thereupon.
Asturia, Gallæcia, and Lusitania furnish in this manner,
yearly, according to some authorities, twenty thousand pounds'
weight of gold, the produce of Asturia forming the major part.
Indeed, there is no part of the world that for centuries has
maintained such a continuous fertility in gold. I have already
28
mentioned that by an ancient decree of the senate, the soil of
Italy has been protected from these researches; otherwise,
there would be no land more fertile in metals. There is extant
also a censorial law relative to the gold mines of Victumulæ,
in the territory of Vercellæ,
29 by which the farmers of the
revenue were forbidden to employ more than five thousand
men at the works.