No doubt the processes of those early times were sufficiently rude. When about to open a new shaft or adit the Inspectors of the mines appear carefully to have examined the different faces of the mountain, sombre, scarped, and barren to the last degree; and having fixed upon a spot in the face of some cliff, the first operation was to render the rock friable by the application of powerful fires, which were kindled with wood at its base. The more robust of the workmen then proceeded with their pickaxes to the excavation of the galleries, which seldom or never proceeded in a right line; but following the direction of the metallic veins, mounted, descended, branched off obliquely to the left or to the right; and progressing in this manner, sometimes perforated the whole bulk of the mountain, and striking downwards, like the roots of trees, extended even to the sea.[979] The men employed in _getting_ the ore, followed incessantly by task-masters with instruments of chastisement in their hands, were seldom permitted to proportion their exertions to their strength; but often toiled on apparently till they dropped, when their bones joined the heaps of those who had fallen before them. While thus engaged, more especially when united in great numbers they had clambered the rocks to a considerable height, they presented an extraordinary spectacle; for each miner[980] carried a lamp bound to his forehead, though how, when they bent or kneeled, or worked sideways, it escaped being extinguished seems difficult of explanation. ----- Footnote 979: Similar excavations in the mountain of Potosi are thus described by Don Antonio d’Ulloa: “Le mont du Potosi doit être considéré comme l’intérieur d’ une ruche à miel, vu le nombre des percemens, des galeries, des fouilles qu’on y remarque. C’est ce qu’on se figurera facilement, en se répresentant la quantité prodigieuse de matières qu’on a tirées de son intérieur, pour obtener les minérais qui s’y trouvent répandus partout, et desquels on extrait l’argent. S’il étoit donc possible de le découvrir totalement de sa croûte externe, on y appercevroit un nombre infini de routes souterreines percées sans suite, et comme au hasard, selon la direction des veines métalliques.” Mémoires Philosophiques, t. i. p. 289. Footnote 980: Οὗτοι μὲν οὖν λύχνους προσδεδεμένους τοῖς μετώποις ἔχοντες λατομοῦσιν, ἀκολουθοῦντες οἷον φλεβὶ τῷ λευκανθίζοντι. Phot. Bib. p. 448. a. -----