mines of America, if in the midst of the wars by which Europe is oppressed, the mercury mines of Almaden and Idria, should no longer be wrought.

I have mentioned the mineral depositories of New Spain, which if examined with care, and worked with constancy, may produce one day a very considerable quantity of mercury. The period approaches when the Spanish Colonies being more united together, 'will be more attentive to their common interests; and it becomes, therefore, of consequence to take a general view of the indications of mercury observable in South America. Mexico and Peru, instead of receiving this metal from Europe, will one day perhaps be able to supply the old world with it. I shall confine myself to the knowledge which I could obtain on the spot, and especially during my stay at Lima; and I shall only mention the points where cinnabar has been found, either in veins or beds. In several places, for example, at Portobello, and Santa Fe de Bogota, considerable quantities of native mercury have been collected at small depths in building houses; and this phenomenon has frequently fixed the attention of government. They forget that in a country where for three centuries, bags filled with mercury have been transported on mules from province to province,

this mercury must necessarily have been scattered in the sheds, under which the beasts of burden are unloaded, and in the mercury magazines established in towns. The mountains in general contain mercury in its native state, in very small portions only; and when in an inhabited place, or on a great road, we discover in the earth several kilogrammes collected together, we must believe that these masses originated in accidental infiltrations.

In the kingdom of New Granada, sulphuretted mercury is known in three different places, namely, in the province of Antioquia, in the Valle de Santa Rosa, east from the Rio Cauca; in the mountain of Quindiu, in the pass of the central cordillera between Ibague and Carthago, at the extremity of the Ravin of Vermellon; and lastly, in the province of Quito, between the village of Azogue and Cuenca. The discovery of the cinnabar of Quindiu is due to the patriotic zeal of the celebrated traveller Mutis, who in the months of August and September, 1786, at his own expense, caused the miners of Sapo to examine that part of the granitic Cordillera which extends to the South from the Nevado de Tolima towards the Rio Saldaña. The mineral of sulphuretted mercury is not only found in round fragments mixed with small grains of gold in the alluvious earth with which the Ravin

(quebrada) de Vermellon at the foot of the table land of Ibague Viejo is filled; but they know the vein also from which the torrent appears to have detached these fragments, and which traverses the small ravin of Santa Ana. Near the village of Azogue to the North-west of Cuenca, the mercury is found, as in the department of Mont-Tonnerre, in a formation of quartz-freestone with argillaceous cement. This freestone is nearly 1400 metres * in thickness, and contains fossil wood † and asphaltos . In the mountains of Guazun and Upar, situated to the North-east of Azogue, a vein of cinnabar traverses beds of clay filled with calcareous spar, and contained in free-stone. We discover there the remains of an old gallery of 120 metres in length, § and 11 pits very close to one another. It is believed in the country that this mine was wrought before Huancavelica, and that it was the dis

*4592 feet. Trans.

+I found beautiful pieces of 14 decimetres (4 feet English) in length at Silcai-Yacu between Delec and Cuenca.

At Porche and the Western declivity of the mountains of Coxitambo, I was singularly struck with the geological relations between the freestone formation of Cuenca and Azogue and the freestone of the mines of Wolfstein and Münsterrappel which I visited in 1790, and which contain also cinnabar, fossil wood, and petrole.

393 feet Trans.

covery of the latter, which was the occasion of its abandonment. The learned experiments of Don Pedro Garcia, and the works executed by M. Vallejos the intendant of Cuenca in 1792, have not proved that the vein of cinnabar of Guazun, may be successfully wrought. At five leagues distance from the town of Popayan, to the North-west near Zeguengue there is a ravin which is called the mercury ravin (quebrada del azogue) without the origin of the name being known.

In Peru, cinnabar is found near Valdivui in the province of Pataz, between the eastern bank of the Marañon and the missions of Guailillas; at the foot of the great Nevado de Pelagato, in the province of Conchucos, to the east of Santa; at the baths of Jesus in the province of Guamalies to the Southeast of Guacarachuco; near Huancavelica in the intendancy of that name; and near Guaraz in the province of Guailas. From the account books found in the provincial treasury of the town of Chachapoyas (between the Rio Sonche and the Rio Utcubamba) it appears that at the beginning of the conquest, mercury mines were wrought in the moderately elevated mountains which extend from Pongo de Manseriche to near Caxamarquillo and the Rio Huallaga; but from the information which I obtained during my stay in the province of

Jaen, the place where these mines were situated is at present totally unknown. The veins of cinnabar of Guaraz were worked with some degree of success in 1802. of success in 1802. There was extracted as much as 84 pounds of mercury from a mass of minerals of 1500 pounds weight.

The famous mine of Huancavelica, as to the state of which so many false ideas have been disseminated, is in the mountain of Santa Barbara, to the south of the town of Huancavelica, at a horizontal distance of 2772 varas (or 2319 metres*). The height of the town above the level of the sea, is according to Le Gentil† 3752 metres (1925 toises). If we add to this the 802 varas, which the summit of the mountain of Santa Barbara, is higher than the level of the streets of Huancavelica, we shall find the absolute height of this

*7606 feet. Trans.

This height is calculated agreeably to the formula of M. La Place, supposing a temperature of 10 centigrade degrees (50° Fahr.). According to Le Gentil, (Voyage aux Indes, T. i. p. 76.) the mean height of the barometer at the town of Huancavellca is 18Po. 11i. 5. In the manuscript of Mothes, this height is estimated at 18Po. 71i. which would give only 1814 toises, or 3535 metres of absolute elevation. (11,596 feet. Trans.) The great square of the town of Micuipampa, where I found the barometer 18p. 4li. 7, would then be 84 metres (275 feet. Trans.) higher than the level of the streets of Huancavelica, (Recueil d'Observations Astronomiques, Vol. i. p. 316.)

12,308 feet. Trans.