of Asia. For in those
countries which abound naturally in iron, governments and the arts
flourished exceedingly, and things needful for the use of man were
discovered and sought after. It is recorded to have been found about
Andria, in the region of the Chalybes near the river Thermodon in Pontus;
in the mountains of Palestine which face Arabia; in Carmania: in Africa
there was a mine of iron in the Isle of Meroe; in Europe in the hills of
Britain, as Strabo writes; in Hither Spain, in Cantabria. Among the
Petrocorii and Cubi Biturges[77] (peoples of Gaul), there were worksteads
in which iron used to be wrought. In greater Germany near Luna, as recorded
by Ptolemy; Gothinian iron is mentioned by Cornelius Tacitus; Noric iron is
celebrated in the verses of poets; and Cretan, and that of Euboea; many
other iron mines were passed over by these writers or unknown to them; and
yet they were neither poor nor scanty, but most extensive. Pliny[78] says
that Hither Spain and all the district from the Pyrenees is ferruginous,
and on the part of maritime Cantabria washed by the Ocean (says the same
writer) there is (incredible to relate) a precipitously high mountain
wholly composed of this material. The most ancient mines were of iron
rather than of gold, silver, copper or lead; since mainly this was sought
because of the demand; and also because in every district and soil they
were easy to find, not so deep-lying, and less beset by difficulties. If,
however, I were to enumerate modern iron workings, and those of this age
and over Europe only, I should have to write a large and bulky volume, and
sheets of paper would run short quicker than the iron, and yet for one
sheet they could furnish a thousand worksteads. For amongst minerals, no
material is so ample; all metals, and all stones distinct from iron, are
outdone by ferric and ferruginous matter. For you will not readily find any
region, and scarcely any country district over the whole of Europe (if you
search at all deeply), that does not either produce a rich and abundant
vein of iron or some soil containing or slightly charged with ferruginous
stuff; and that this is {26} true any expert in the arts of metals and
chemistry will easily find. Beside that which has ferruginous nature, and
the metallick lode, there is another ferric substance which does not yield
the metal in this way because its thin humour is burnt out by fierce fires,
and it is changed into an iron slag like t