Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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              value, sell them, on which account they seldom obtain even moderate wealth.
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              <s>There are some people who wash over the dumps from exhausted and
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              abandoned mines, and those dumps which are derived from the drains of
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              tunnels; and others who smelt the old slags; from all of which they make an
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              ample return.</s>
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              <s>Now a miner, before he begins to mine the veins, must consider seven
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              things, namely:—the situation, the conditions, the water, the roads, the
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              climate, the right of ownership, and the neighbours. </s>
              <s>There are four kinds
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              of situations—mountain, hill, valley, and plain. </s>
              <s>Of these four, the
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              first two are the most easily mined, because in them tunnels can be
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              driven to drain off the water, which often makes mining operations very
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              laborious, if it does not stop them altogether. </s>
              <s>The last two kinds of
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              ground are more troublesome, especially because tunnels cannot be driven
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              in such places. </s>
              <s>Nevertheless, a prudent miner considers all these four
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              sorts of localities in the region in which he happens to be, and he searches for
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              veins in those places where some torrent or other agency has removed and
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              swept the soil away; yet he need not prospect everywhere, but since there
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              is a great variety, both in mountains and in the three other kinds of
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              localities, he always selects from them those which will give him the best
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              chance of obtaining wealth.</s>
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              <s>In the first place, mountains differ greatly in position, some being
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              situated in even and level plains, while others are found in broken and
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              elevated regions, and others again seem to be piled up, one mountain upon
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              another. </s>
              <s>The wise miner does not mine in mountains which are situated on
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              open plains, neither does he dig in those which are placed on the summits of
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              mountainous regions, unless by some chance the veins in those mountains
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              have been denuded of their surface covering, and abounding in metals and
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              other products, are exposed plainly to his notice,—for with regard to what
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              I have already said more than once, and though I never repeat it again,
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              I wish to emphasize this exception as to the localities which should
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              not be selected. </s>
              <s>All districts do not possess a great number of mountains
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              crowded together; some have but one, others two, others three, or perhaps
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              a few more. </s>
              <s>In some places there are plains lying between them; in others
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              the mountains are joined together or separated only by narrow valleys.
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              </s>
              <s>The miner should not dig in those solitary mountains, dispersed through
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              the plains and open regions, but only in those which are connected and
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              joined with others. </s>
              <s>Then again, since mountains differ in size, some being
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              very large, others of medium height, and others more like hills than
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              mountains, the miner rarely digs in the largest or the smallest of them,
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              but generally only in those of medium size. </s>
              <s>Moreover, mountains have a
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              great variety of shapes; for with some the slopes rise gradually, while
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              others, on the contrary, are all precipitous; in some others the slopes are
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              gradual on one side, and on the other sides precipitous; some are drawn
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              out in length; some are gently curved; others assume different
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              shapes. </s>
              <s>But the miner may dig in all parts of them, except where there
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              are precipices, and he should not neglect even these latter if metallic veins </s>
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