The metals employed in the fabrication of arms were obtained partly from mines found in Greece itself, partly by commerce from the surrounding countries.[967] On the methods of mining which prevailed among the Greeks our information is peculiarly scanty. We know, however, that, at Laurion,[968] the Athenians made use of both shafts and adits, and that in chambering they employed much timber.[969] To prevent the falling in of the superincumbent mountain there were left at intervals vast pillars,[970] the cutting away of which was by law prohibited on pain of death. In the potter’s-clay mines of Samos, where the veins, running generally between beds of rock, were exceedingly shallow, seldom exceeding two feet in depth, the miners, as in the thin veins of our own coal mines, were compelled while at work to lie on their back or sides, which, it may be presumed, was the practice in other mines under similar circumstances. Whether they possessed any means of protecting themselves against the fire-damps or malaria,[971] which, we know, prevailed greatly at Laurion,[972] is a matter of much uncertainty. In Spain, the mines ran deep into the earth, and were of prodigious extent, having transverse passages and caverns of great dimensions and elevation. ----- Footnote 967: Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 21. Herod. v. 17. vi. 46. vii. 112. Thucyd. i. 101. Plut. Cim. § 14. Footnote 968: On the price of mining shares, Dem. adv. Pantæn. § 6. Schol. Eq. 1089. Footnote 969: Cf. Petit, Legg. Att. vii. 12. p. 543. Footnote 970: Μεσοκρινεῖς κίονες, οἱ ἐν τοῖς μετάλλοις ὑφεστηκότες ἀνέχειν τὰ ὀρύγματα. Poll. vii. 98. Footnote 971: Theoph. de Lapid. § 52. Footnote 972: Λέγεται βαρὺ τὸ χωρίον εἶναι. Xenoph. Memor. iii. 6. 12. ----- In an old shaft discovered in the mountains of Santo Spirito,[973] the sides were supported by masonry; large pools of water were found in some of the chambers, while the explorers could hear afar off the incessant roar of waterfalls. Here and there the passages were nearly blocked up by masses of gold and silver ore.[974] ----- Footnote 973: The mountain districts of Spain, in which the mines were situated, are described by Pliny to be so utterly barren, that they produce nothing but ore. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 21. Footnote 974: “Times,” March 24, 1841. ----- How the water was drained off, or the ore brought to the surface of the earth, no ancient author has explained. When extracted, however, it was pounded in a stone mortar with an iron pestle, then passed through a sieve, and transferred to the smelting furnace.[975] ----- Footnote 975: Vitruv. vii. 7. Demosth. in Pantænet. § 6. Harpocrat. v. κεγκρεὼν. Suid. t. i. p. 1428. a. -----