Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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            <p type="main">
              <s>
                <pb pagenum="89"/>
              according as the king or prince has decreed. </s>
              <s>Further, of all the money
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              which the owner of the tunnel has spent on his tunnel while driving it
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              through a meer, the owner of that meer pays one-fourth part. </s>
              <s>If he does
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              not do so he is not allowed to make use of the drains.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>Finally, with regard to whatever veins are discovered by the owner
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              at whose expense the tunnel is driven, the right of which has not been
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              already awarded to anyone, on the application of such owner the
                <emph type="italics"/>
              Bergmeister
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
                <lb/>
              grants him a right of a head-meer, or of a head-meer together with the next
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              meer. </s>
              <s>Ancient custom gives the right for a tunnel to be driven in any
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              direction for an unlimited length. </s>
              <s>Further, to-day he who commences a
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              tunnel is given, on his application, not only the right over the tunnel, but
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              even the head and sometimes the next meer also. </s>
              <s>In former days the owner
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              of the tunnel obtained only so much ground as an arrow shot from the bow
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              might cover, and he was allowed to pasture cattle therein. </s>
              <s>In a case where
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              the shafts of several meers on some vein could not be worked on account of
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              the great quantity of water, ancient custom also allowed the
                <emph type="italics"/>
              Bergmeister
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              to
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              grant the right of a large meer to anyone who would drive a tunnel. </s>
              <s>When,
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              however, he had driven a tunnel as far as the old shafts and had found
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              metal, he used to return to the
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              Bergmeister
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              and request him to bound and
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              mark off the extent of his right to a meer. </s>
              <s>Thereupon, the
                <emph type="italics"/>
              Bergmeister,
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              together with a certain number of citizens of the town—in whose place
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              Jurors have now succeeded—used to proceed to the mountain and mark off
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              with boundary stones a large meer, which consisted of seven double
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              measures, that is to say, it was ninety-eight fathoms long and seven wide,
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              which two numbers multiplied together make six hundred and eighty-six
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              square fathoms.</s>
            </p>
            <figure number="51"/>
            <p type="caption">
              <s>LARGE AREA.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>But each of these early customs has been changed, and we now employ
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              the new method.</s>
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            <p type="main">
              <s>I have spoken of tunnels; I will now speak about the division of owner­
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              ship in mines and tunnels. </s>
              <s>One owner is allowed to possess and to work
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              one, two, three, or more whole meers, or similarly one or more separate
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              tunnels, provided he conforms to the decrees of the laws relating to
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              metals, and to the orders of the
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              Bergmeister.
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              </s>
              <s> And because he alone pro­
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              vides the expenditure of money on the mines, if they yield metal he alone
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              obtains the product from them. </s>
              <s>But when large and frequent expenditures
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              are necessary in mining, he to whom the
                <emph type="italics"/>
              Bergmeíster
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              first gave the right </s>
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          </chap>
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