Count de la Valenciana, preserved in the midst of immense wealth, the same simplicity of manners, and the same frankness of character, for which he was distinguished previous to his success. When he When he began to work the vein of Guanaxuato, above the Ravin of San Xavier, goats were feeding on the very hill which ten years afterwards was covered with a town of seven or eight thousand inhabitants. Since the death of the old Count, and his friend Don Pedro Luciano Otero, the property of the mine has been divided among several families *. I knew at Guanaxuato two younger sons of M. Otero, each of whom possessed in ready money, a capital of six millions and a halft, without including the actual revenue from the mine which amounted to more than 400,000 francs ‡.

The constancy and equality of the produce of the mine of Valenciana, is so much the more surprising, as the abundance of the rich mines has considerably diminished, and the expences of working have increased

* The property of Valenciana is divided into twenty-eight shares, called barres, of which ten belong to the descendants of the Count de la Valenciana, twelve to the family of Otero, and two to that of Santana.

† 271,835 Sterling. Trans.

16,600 and upwards. Trans.

in an alarming proportion, when the works have reached a perpendicular depth of 500 metres*. The piercing and walling of the three old draught-pits cost the count de Valenciana nearly six millions of francs, viz.

The square pit of San Antonio or tiro viejo, 227 metres of perpendicular depth, and four baritels a chevaux

The square pit of Santo Christo de Burgos 150 metres in depth and two baritels a chevaux

The hexagonal pit of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (tiro nuevo)

Piastres

396,000

95,000

345 metres in perpendicular depth and

six baritels a chevaux

700,000

Expence of the three pits.

1,191,000

Within these twelve years they have begun to dig in the solid rock, in the roof of the vein a new draught-pit (tiro general) which will have the enormous perpendicular depth of 514 metres †, terminating at the actual

I reduce the varas mexicanas on the principle that a vara is equal to 0 839 or a toise 2. 332 varas mexicanas

bottom of the mine or at the planes of San Bernardo. This pit which will be in the centre of the works, will considerably diminish the number of the 980 miners (tenateros) employed as beasts of burden to carry the minerals to the upper places of assemblage. The tiro general which will cost more than a million of piastres is octagonal and contains 26". 8 of circumference†. Its walling is most beautiful. It is believed that they will reach the vein in 1815, although in the month of September 1803 the depth was not yet more than 184 metres 1. The piercing of this pit is one of the greatest and boldest undertakings to be found in the history of mines. It may be questioned, however, whether for the sake of diminishing the expences of carriage and draught, it was expedient to recur to a remedy which is at once slow, expensive, and uncertain.

(See Vol. ii. p. 165). In that country they consider the mines of Valenciana the deepest ever dug by man. At the period when I measured the planes of San Bernardo, the mine of Berchert Glück, at Freiberg in Saxony had reached 447 metres of perpendicular depth (1465 feet Trans.) It is believed that in the sixteenth century the works of the Saxon mines on the vein Alter Thurmhof went as far as 545 feet in depth (1787 feet. Trans.). Author. *£218,767 Sterling.

+87 feet. Trans.

603 feet. Trans.

The expences of working the mine of Valenciana have been on an average annually:

From 1787 to 1791

From 1794 to 1802

profits of the

Piastres

410,000*

890,000 +

Although the expences are doubled, the share-holders have remained The following table contains an exact state of the mine for the last nine years.

nearly the same.

* £89,694 Sterling. Trans.

† 194,708 Sterling.

Estado que manifiesta el valor de los frutos que ha producido la mina de Valenciana, costa de sus memorias y hquido producto, a favor de sus duenos; lo presentò Don Joseph Antonio del Maso al Excellentissimo Señor Virey de Nueva Espana Don Joseph de Yturigarray, el 3 de Julio 1803. (M. S)