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produce of the single year 1791, we shall find 9 ounces per quintal. At this period, when the mine was in the most flourishing condition, in the total mass of minerals there

were:

Too of rich minerals (polvillos and Xabones,) containing per quintal

·

of rich minerals (apolvillado)

153 of rich minerals (blanco bueno)

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·

Mar. Oza.

22 3

9 3

3 1

of poor minerals (granzas, tierras ordinarias, &c.)

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The quantity of rich minerals, was consequently to that of the poor minerals, nearly in the proportion of 3 to 14. The minerals which only contained 3 ounces per quintal, supplied in 1791 (we are always speaking of the mine of Valenciana alone) more than 20,0000 marcs of silver, while there was a sufficient quantity of rich minerals, to yield a produce of more than 400,000 marcs. At present, the mean wealth of the whole vein of Guanaxuato may be estimated at 4 ounces of silver, per quintal of minerals. The South West part of the vein, which intersects the mine of Rayas, yields, however minerals, of which the contents generally amount to more than 3

marcs.

In the district of the mines of Pachuca,

they divide the produce of the seam of Biscaina, into three classes, of which the riches varied in 1803, from 4 to 20 marcs per monton of 30 quintals. The minerals of the first class which are the richest, contain from 18 to 20; and those of the second class from seven to ten marcs. The poorest mines, which form the third class are only computed at four marcs of silver per monton. The result is that the good contains from 4 to 5; the middling, from 1% to 2 and the worst about 1 ounces of silver per quintal.

3

In the district of mines of Tasco, the minerals of Tehuilotepec contain in a tarea of four montones or 100 quintals, 25 marcs of silver; those of Guautla yield 45; their mean wealth is consequently from 2 to 3 of silver per quintal of minerals.

ounces

It is not then, as has been too long believed, from the intrinsic wealth of the minerals, but rather from the great abundance in which they are to be found in the bowels of the earth, and the facility with which they can be wrought, that the mines of America are to be distinguished from those of Europe*.

The silver ore of Peru does not in general appear to be richer than that of Mexico: The contents is estimated not by the monton, but by the caxon (chest) which contains 24 cargas, reckoning each carga at ten

arrobas or 2 quintals. At Potosi, the mean wealth of the minerals is ; in the mines of Pasco, 133 ounces

per quintal.

53

100

The three districts of mines which we have just alluded to, furnish alone, more than a million of marcs of silver, and from the whole of these data we cannot entertain a doubt that the mean contents of the Mexican minerals, do not amount, as we have already stated, to more than from three to four ounces of silver, per quintal. Hence these minerals, though somewhat richer than those of Freiberg, contain much less silver than the minerals of Annaberg, Johann-Georgenstadt, Marienberg, and other districts of the Obergebirge in Saxony. From 1789 to 1799, there have been extracted communibus annis from the seams of the district of Freiberg, 156,752 quintals, which have yielded 48,952 marcs of silver; so that the mean contents were 2 ounces per quintal of minerals. But in the mines of the Obergebirge the mean riches, have amounted to ten, and at very fortunate periods even to fifteen ounces per quintal.

We have taken a general view of the rocks in which the principal mines of New Spain are to be found; we have examined on what points, in what latitudes, and at what elevations above the level of the sea, nature has collected the greatest quantity of metallick wealth; and we have indicated the minerals which furnish the immense quantity of silver which annually flows from the one

1

continent to the other. It remains for us to afford some details relative to the most considerable mining operations. We shall confine ourselves to three of those groupes of mines which we have already described, to the central gro", e, and those of Tasco and Biscaina. Tho who know the state of mining in Furope will be struck with the contrast between the great mines of Mexico, for example, those of Valenciana, Rayas, and Tereros, and the mines which are considered as very rich in Saxony, the Harz, and Hungary. Could the latter be transported to the midst of the great works of Guanaxuato, Catorce, or the Real del Monte, their wealth, and the quantity of their produce, would appear as insignificant to the inhabitants of America, as the height of the Pyrenees compared with the Cordilleras.

The Central group of the mines' of New Spain, a portion of ground abounding more in silver than any other known on the globe, is situated in the same parallel with Bengal, under a latitude where the equinoctial is confounded with the temperate zone. This group comprehends the three districts of the mines of Guanaxuato, Catorce, and Zacatecas, the first of which possesses an extent of 220, the second of 750, and the third of 730 square leagues, calculating the surfaces from the po

sition of the insulated mines (realitos) at the greatest distance from the chief place of the district.

The district of Guanaxuato, the most southern of this group, is as remarkable for its natural wealth as for the gigantic labours of man in the bowels of the mountains. To form a more exact idea of the position of these mines, we invite the reader to call to mind what we have already stated in the particular description of the provinces, and to cast his eyes over the physical section of the central table land, in the atlas to this work.

In the centre of the intendancy of Guanaxuato on the ridge of the cordillera of Anahuac, rises a group of porphyritic summits known by the name of the Sierra de Santa Rosa. This group of mountains partly arid, and partly covered with strawberry-trees, and evergreen oaks, is surrounded with fertile and well cultivated fields. To the north of the Sierra, the Llanos of San Felipe, extend as far as the eye

* Vol. ii. p. 204. I have drawn up a geographical map of the environs of the town of Guanaxuato, which will appear in the historical account of my travels in the Equinoctial Regions of America. This map is partly taken from the perpendicular bases measured barometrically. See Vol. i. Introduction, p. xiii, and my Recueil d'Observations Astronomiques, Vol. i. p. 372.

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