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 the _Bergmeister_ doubles the width of the head-meer and it is made fourteen fathoms wide, while the width of each of the other meers remains single, that is seven fathoms, but the length is not defined by boundaries. In some places the head-meer consists of three double measures, but has a width of fourteen fathoms and a length of twenty-one.
[Illustration 86a (Rectangle with lengths): Shape of a Head-Meer.]
[Illustration 86b (Square with lengths): Shape of every other Meer.]
In the same way, every other meer is composed of two measures, doubled in the same fashion, so that it is fourteen fathoms in width and of the same length.
Elsewhere every meer, whether a head-meer or other meer, comprises forty-two fathoms in width and as many in length.