Count de Regla, at Real del Monte, or in those of Bolaños, where M. Sonneschmidt*, counted nearly 4000 horses and mules employed in moving the baritels. The mines of the district of Tasco, situated on the western slope of the Cordillera, have lost their antient splendour, since the end of the last century; for in their present state, the veins of Tehuilotepec, Sochipala, Cerro del Limon, San Estevan, and Gautla, do not altogether yield more than 60,000 marcs of silver annually.† During the year 1752 and the ten following years, the mines of Tasco were wrought with the greatest activity and success. This activity was owing to the enterprising mind of Joseph Laborde, a Frenchman, who came into Mexico very poor, and who in 1743, acquired immense wealth in the mine of la Cañada of the Real de Tlapujahua. We have already spoken in another place of the reverses of fortune several times experienced by this extraordinary man. After building a church at Tasco, which cost him 400,000 piastres §, he was reduced to the lowest poverty, by the rapid decline of those very mines, from which * Sonneschmidt, p. 241. §£87,507 Sterling. Trans. he had annually drawn from 2 to 300,000* marcs of silver. The archbishop having given him permission to sell a golden sun enriched with diamonds, with which he had adorned the tabernacle of the church of Tasco, he withdrew to Zacatecas with the produce of this sale which amounted to 100,000 piastres.† The district of mines of Zacatecas was then in such a state of abandonment, that it scarcely furnished fifty thousand marcst of silver annually to the mint at Mexico. Laborde undertook to clear out the famous mine of Quebradilla, in which undertaking he lost all his property, without attaining his object. With the small capital which remained to him, he began to work on the veta grande, and sunk the pit of La Esperanza, when a second time he acquired immense wealth. The silver produce of the mine of Zacatecas rose then to 500,000 marcs § per annum; and though the abundance of metals did not long continue the same, he left at his death a fortune of nearly three millions of livres Tournois. He compelled his daughter to enter into a convent, that he might leave his whole fortune to an only son, who afterwards voluntarily embraced the * From 131,263 to 196,894 lb. troy. Trans. 32,815 lb. troy. Trans. $328,153 lb. troy. || 125,0107. sterling. Trans. VOL. III. 1 ecclesiastical office. In Mexico, and every where else in the Spanish provinces, it is extremely rare to see children following the profession of their fathers; and we do not find there, as in Sweden, Germany, and Scotland, families, in which the business of miner is hereditary. The veins of Tasco, and the Real de Tehuilotepec, traverse barren mountains, furrowed by very deep ravins. The oldest rock which appears at the surface in this district of mines, is primitive clay-slate (thonschiefer), which passes into micaceous slate. Its direction is hor. 3-4; and its inclination 40° to the north-west, as I observed in the Cerro de San Ignacio, and to the west of Tehuilotepec, in the Cerro de la Compaña, where Cortez began his gallery of investigation. The micaceous slate probably rests on the granite of Zumpango, and on that of the valley of Papagallo; and it appears covered near Achichintla, and Acamiscla, with a porphyritic formation, which contains both common and vitreous felspar, and beds of blackish brown pitch-stone (pechstein). In the environs of Tasco, Tehuilotepec, and Limon, primitive slate serves for base to the bluish-grey, and frequently porous compact limestone belonging to the alpine formation. This limestone contains many subordinate beds, some of lamellar gypsum, and others of slate-clay, (schieferthon) charged with carbon. In ascending from the banks of the lake of Tuspa to the Subida de Tasco el Viejo, we found petrifactions of trochites, and other univalve shells, contained in this limestone. The stratification was very marked, but its banks follow by groups different directions and inclinations. A grey stone with a calcareous cement reposes on this limestone of Tasco, the same with that which covers, the plains of Sopilote, and the fertile table land of Chilpansingo. શ્ર The mining districts of Tasco, and of the Real de Tehuilotepec contains a great number of veins, which, with the exception of the Cerro de la Compaña, are all directed from the north-west to the south-east, hor. 7-9. These veins, like those of Catorce, traverse both the limestone and the micaceous slate which serves for its base; and they exhibit the same metals in both rocks. These metals have been much more abundant in the limestone. The mines have become extremely poor since they were compelled to work the veins in the micaceous slate. A very intelligent and a very active miner, Don Vicente de Anza, wrought the mines of Tehuilotepec to the depth of 224 metres *; and he cut two excellent levels for a length of 1200 * 734 feet. Trans. metres*; but unfortunately he found that the same veins which had furnished considerable riches at the surface of the earth, were at great depths as poor in red silver ores, as abundant in galena, pyrites, and yellow blende. An extraordinary event which happened on the 16th February 1802, completed the ruin of the miners of this district. The mines of Tehuilotepec, like those of Guautla, have at all times wanted the necessary water to put in motion the bocards and other machines, which prepare the minerals for the process of amalgamation. The most abundant stream used in the works, issued from a cavern in the limestone rock, called the Cueva de San Felipe. This rivulet was lost in the night between the 16th and 17th of February, and five days afterwards, a new spring was found at fiveleagues distance from the cavern, near the village of Platanillo. It has been proved by researches of the greatest interest for geology, of which I shall speak in another place, that there exists in this country, between the villages of Chamacasapa, Platanillo, and Tehuilotepec, in the bosom of calcareous mountains, a series of caverns and natural galleries, and that subterraneous rivers, like those of the * 3936 feet. Trans. |