draw them out and remove the cloth. When the cloth appears to be golden
because of the particles which adhere to it, it is washed in a special tub and
the particles are collected in a bowl. The remainder which has run down into
the tub is again washed on the frame.
fused with vein mining. This passage (xxxiii, 21) is as follows : " Gold is found in
" the world in three ways, to say nothing of that found in India by the ants, and in
" Scythia by the Griffins. The first is as gold dust found in streams, as, for instance, in the
" Tagus in Spain, in the Padus in Italy, in the Hebrus in Thracia, in the Pactolus in Asia,
" and in the Ganges in India ; indeed, there is no gold found more perfect than this, as the
" current polishes it thoroughly by attrition. . . . Others by equal labour and greater
" expense bring rivers from the mountain heights, often a hundred miles, for the purpose of
" washing this debris. The ditches thus made are called corrugi, from our word corrivatio, I
" suppose ; and these entail a thousand fresh labours. The fall must be steep, that the
" water may rush down from very high places, rather than flow gently. The ditches
" across the valleys are joined by aqueducts, and in other places, impassable rocks have to be
" cut away and forced to make room for troughs of hollowed-out logs. Those who cut the
" rocks are suspended by ropes, so that to those who watch them from a distance, the
" workmen seem not so much beasts as birds. Hanging thus, they take the levels and trace
" the lines which the ditch is to take ; and thus, where there is no place for man's footstep,
"streams are dragged by men. The water is vi dated for washing if the current of the
