Boek 5, 22

However, I shall give a detailed account of the customs in Britain and the other particular usages when I come to Caesar’s expedition to Britain. For the time being I shall deal with the tin produced there. Those inhabitants of Britain around the promontory called Belerium [Land’s End] are particularly hospitable and civilised in their way of life as a result of their dealings with foreign merchants. They it is who produce the tin, working the ground that bears it in an ingenious manner. This is stony and contains seams of earth in which they mine the ore and refine it by smelting. They hammer it into the shape of knucklebones and transport it to an island that lies off Britain called Ictis [St Michael’s Mount?]; for at low tide the space between is left high and dry and they transport the tin here in large quantities by means of wagons. A strange thing occurs around the nearby islands between Britain and Europe, for at high tide the causeways between them and the mainland are covered and they seem to be islands, but at low tide the sea recedes and leaves a large area high and dry so that they look like peninsulas. There (Ictis) merchants buy the tin from the natives and transport it to Galatia [Gaul]. Finally, making their way on foot through Galatia for around 30 days, they bring their merchandise on horseback to the mouth of the river Rhone.