stream too much, and move slowly; and that they frequently stop when the water is too high, or when it is frozen. After this improvement the use of water-mills was never laid aside or forgotten: they were soon made known all over Europe; and were it worth the trouble, one might quote passages in which they are mentioned in every century. The Roman, Salic, and other laws[411] provided security for these mills, which they call _molina_ or _farinaria_; and define a punishment for those who destroy the sluices, or steal the mill-irons (_ferramentum_). But there were water-mills in Germany and France a hundred years before the Salic laws were formed. Ausonius, who lived about the year 379, mentions some which were then still remaining on a small stream that falls into the Moselle, and which were noticed also by Fortunatus[412], in the fifth century. Gregory of Tours, who wrote towards the end of the sixth century, speaks of a water-mill which was situated near the town of Dijon; and of another which a certain abbot caused to be built for the benefit of his convent[413]. Brito, who in the beginning of the thirteenth century wrote in verse an account of the actions of Philip Augustus king of France[414], relates how by the piercing of a dam the mills near Gournay (_castrum Gornacum_ or _Cornacum_) were destroyed, to the great detriment of the besieged. In the first crusade, at the end of the eleventh century, the Germans burned in Bulgaria seven mills which were situated below a bridge on a small rivulet, and which seem to have been floating-mills[415]. In deeds of the twelfth and thirteenth century, water-mills are often called _aquimollia_, _aquimoli_, _aquismoli_, _aquimolæ_[416]. Petrus Damiani, one of the fathers of the eleventh century, says, “Sicut aquimolum nequaquam potest sine gurgitis inundantia frumenta permolere, ita, &c.[417]” At Venice and other places, there were mills which righted themselves by the ebbing and flowing of the tide, and which every six hours changed the position of the wheels. Zanetti[418] has shown, from some old charters, that such mills existed about the year 1044; and with still more certainty in 1078, 1079, and 1107. In one charter are the words: _Super toto ipso aquimolo molendini posito in palude juxta campo alto_; where the expression _aquimolum molendini_ deserves to be particularly remarked, as it perhaps indicates that the mill in question was a proper grinding-mill. Should this conjecture be well-founded, it would prove that so early as the eleventh century water-mills were used not only for grinding corn, but for many other purposes.