The mining industries, too, were zealously fostered by them. Spain was and is a widely metalliferous country. Her hidden treasures were known already to the Phoenicians, Carthagenians and Romans, and were mined by them with great profit. The gold and silver of Solomon's temple come through Hiram of Tyre from Tarshish, which was Southern Spain. But the dark ages had set in and with them Europe's universal sloth. When the Moors entered Spain the ancient mines had been, for the most part, abandoned. They revived this industry, and with a zeal which may best be told by the existence to-day of 5,000 Moorish shafts--distinguished from the former by being square instead of round--in one district (Jaen) alone gold was found in large quantities, and it was one of their leading articles for manufacture and export. They gave us the Arabic word "_carat_" which we still use in speaking of the quality of gold. They opened the inexhaustible vein of mercury which they worked with great profit and with such skill, that it still forms the largest deposit in the world, yielding still one-half of the quicksilver now in use, and being a government monopoly, this one remnant of Moorish and Jewish skill and industry, alone, still produces an annual revenue of $1,250,000. In addition to these, lead, copper, iron, alum, red and yellow ochre were mined in great quantity. Precious stones also were in great abundance--the beryl, ruby, golden marcasite, agates, garnets. Pearls were found on the coast near Barcelona. Building stones, marbles, and jaspers of all colors, were uninterruptedly quarried in the mountains. The manufacturing industries kept pace in their success with that of mining and agriculture. With the Jews a knowledge of silk culture came into Europe, and with the assistance of Moorish skill it became one of the leading industries and one of the most profitable exports. All Europe, and the greater portions of Asia and Africa, looked to the Jews and Moors of Spain for their fine fabrics of silk and cotton and woolen, for all the wonders of the loom and the skilful and delicate patterns of filigree work in gold and silver. The carpet manufacture of the Moslems reached the excellence which it has maintained to our own day.