Of the width of every meer, whether old or new, one-half lies on the footwall side of a vena profunda and one half on the hangingwall side. If the vein descends vertically into the earth, the boundaries similarly descend vertically; but if the vein inclines, the boundaries likewise will be inclined. The owner always holds the mining right for the width of the meer, however far the vein descends into the depth of the earth.[6] Further, the Bergmeister, on application being made to him, grants to one owner or company a right over not only the head meer, or another meer, but also the head meer and the next meer or two adjoining meers. So much for the shape of meers and their dimensions in the case of a vena profunda.
I now come to the case of venae dilatatae. The boundaries of the areas on such veins are not all measured by one method. For in some places the Bergmeister gives them shapes similar to the shapes of the meers on venae profundae, in which case the head-meer is composed of three double measures, and the area of every other mine of two measures, as I have explained more fully above. In this case, however, he measures the meers with a cord, not only forward and backward from the ends of the head-meer, as he is wont to do in the case where the owner of a vena profunda has a meer granted him, but also from the sides. In this way meers are marked out when a torrent or some other force of Nature has laid open a vena dilatata in a valley, so that it appears either on the slope of a mountain or hill or on a plain.
Elsewhere every meer, whether a head-meer or other meer, comprises forty-two fathoms in width and as many in length.
In other places the Bergmeister gives the owner or company all of some locality defined by rivers or little valleys as boundaries. But the boundaries of every such area of whatsoever shape it be, descend vertically into the earth; so the owner of that area has a right over that part of any vena dilatata which lies beneath the first one, just as the owner of the meer on a vena profunda has a right over so great a part of all other venae profundae as lies within the boundaries of his meer; for just as wherever one vena profunda is found, another is found not far away, so wherever one vena dilatata is found, others are found beneath it.
Finally, the Bergmeister divides vena cumulata areas in different ways, for in some localities the head-meer is composed of three measures, doubled in such a way that it is fourteen fathoms wide and twenty-one long; and every other meer consists of two measures doubled, and is square, that is, fourteen fathoms wide and as many long.
Each other meer consists of one double measure. In some places the head-meer is given the shape of a double measure, and every other meer that of a single measure. Lastly, in other places the owner or a company is given a right over some complete specified locality bounded by little streams, valleys, or other limits. Furthermore, all meers on venae cumulatae, as in the case of dilatatae, descend vertically into the depths of the earth, and each meer has the boundaries so determined as to prevent disputes arising between the owners of neighbouring mines.