Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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              <s>
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              written in Book I. of my work “
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              De Veteribus et Novís Metallís
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              ”)
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              16
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              ; or they
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              may be exposed through the force of the wind, when it uproots and destroys
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              the trees which have grown over the veins; or by the breaking away of the
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              rocks; or by long-continued heavy rains tearing away the mountain; or by
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              an earthquake; or by a lightning flash; or by a snowslide; or by the
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              violence of the winds: “Of such a nature are the rocks hurled down from
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              the mountains by the force of the winds aided by the ravages of time.” Or
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              the plough may uncover the veins, for Justin relates in his history that
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              nuggets of gold had been turned up in Galicia by the plough; or this may
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              occur through a fire in the forest, as Diodorus Siculus tells us happened in the
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              silver mines in Spain; and that saying of Posidonius is appropriate enough:
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              “The earth violently moved by the fires consuming the forest sends forth new
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              products, namely, gold and silver.”
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              17
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              . </s>
              <s>And indeed, Lucretius has ex­
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              plained the same thing more fully in the following lines: “Copper and gold
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              and iron were discovered, and at the same time weighty silver and the sub­
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              stance of lead, when fire had burned up vast forests on the great hills, either
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              by a discharge of heaven's lightning, or else because, when men were waging
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              war with one another, forest fires had carried fire among the enemy in order to
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              strike terror to them, or because, attracted by the goodness of the soil, they
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              wished to clear rich fields and bring the country into pasture, or else to destroy
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              wild beasts and enrich themselves with the game; for hunting with pitfalls
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              and with fire came into use before the practice of enclosing the wood with
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              toils and rousing the game with dogs. </s>
              <s>Whatever the fact is, from
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