[1074] The mineral riches of Spain are lauded in equal terms by Herodotus, Aristotle, Pliny, and many other writers. We can only remark, that at the present day the mineral wealth of that country scarcely justifies such descriptions.
[1075] The Cevennes.
[1076] Pliny, (lib. xxxiii. c. 4,) writing on the same subject, says, “Inveniuntur ita massæ; necnon in puteis etiam denas excedentes libras. Palacras Hispani, alii palacranas, iidem quod minutum est balucem vocant.”
[1077] This passage is evidently corrupt, nor do any of the readings which have been proposed seem to clear up the difficulties which it presents.
[1078] Archimedes’ Screw. It was called the Egyptian screw because invented by Archimedes when in Egypt, and also because it was much employed by the Egyptians in raising water from the Nile for the irrigation of their lands.
[1079] We read τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν, according to Kramer’s suggestion.
[1080] The following is the enigma alluded to. We have extracted it from Mackenzie’s Translation of the Life of Homer, attributed to Herodotus of Halicarnassius. While the sailors and the towns-people of the Isle of Ios (Nio) were speaking with Homer, some fishermen’s children ran their vessel on shore, and descending to the sands, addressed these words to the assembled persons: “Hear us, strangers, explain our riddle if ye can.” Then some of those who were present ordered them to speak. “We leave,” say they, “what we take, and we carry with us that we cannot take.” No one being able to solve the enigma, they thus expounded it. “Having had an unproductive fishery,” say they in explanation, “we sat down on the sand, and being annoyed by the vermin, left the fish we had taken on the shore, taking with us the vermin we could not catch.”
[1081] These people inhabited the province of Gallicia in Spain.
[1082] Carthagena.
[1083] Caslona.