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Aurum, Gold

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engineer, who looks out for the proper stone, and marks it out for the labourers. Of those appointed to this miserable task, such as are of the strongest make break down the marble-like rock with iron pickaxes, applying no art to their labour, but mere brute strength, and thus cut galleries, running not in a straight line, but guided by the direction of the white veins. These men, in consequence of the crooked course of the galleries, work in dark­ness, and carry therefore lamps ingeniously fastened upon their foreheads; and frequently changing their posture, according to the arrangement of the veins, they break down and bring to the floor the fragments of the out rock, doing this under the lash and cruelty of an overseer. Meanwhile the boys, creeping into the passages, throw up, with much toil, the broken mineral as it falls little by little, and carry it up into the open air at the mine's mouth. Here those above thirty years old receive from them a fixed measure of the broken ore, and pound it in stone mortars with iron pestles, until they reduce it to the size of a vetch. From these the granulated ore is taken by the women and the older men, who have many hand-mills set in a row, and, standing two or three together at the handle, they grind the measure given to them as fine as flour.
" Last of all the skilled workmen receive the ore ground fine, and complete the operation. They have a board placed some­what sloping, on which they throw a small quantity of the dust, and pouring water over it they rub it. Then the earthy par­ticles are dissolved by the water, and run off, owing to the slope of the board; but those containing the gold remain upon it in consequence of their weight. Eepeating this frequently, first of all they rub the dust gently with their hands, afterwards they press it with coarse sponges lightly, taking up in this way the loose and earthy part, until the gold-dust is left behind un­mixed. Finally, other workmen, taking from them the collected dust, according to weight and measure, place it in earthen crucibles, mixing in a certain proportion lead-ore and lumps of salt, to which they add a little tin and barley-bran. Then they fit on the cover of the crucible, luting it down carefully with clay, and bake it in a furnace five days and nights continuously. Then taking it out, and leaving it to cool, they find nothing of
Aurum, Gold Page of 453 Aurum, Gold
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