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sury of Pasco, specifies the number and weight of the ingots of silver smelted at Pasco, between the years 1792 and 1801,

Mining operations of Yauricocha.

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It appears from this table that the produce of Pasco has almost never been below two hundred thousand marcs, and that it amounted in 1794 and 1801 nearly to the sum of three hundred thousand marks of silver. †

The mines of Gualgayoc and Micuipampa, commonly called Chota, which I had occasion to examine very minutely in 1802, were only discovered in 1771 by Don Rodriguez de

131,263 lb. troy. Trans.

† 196.894lb. troy. Trans.

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Ocaño, a European Spaniard. In the time of the Incas, the Peruvians wrought veins of silver in the Cerro de la Lin, near Cutervo, at Chupiquiyacu, to the west of the small town of Micuipampa, where the thermometer descends almost every night to the freezing point, and which is seven hundred metres higher than the town of Quito. Immense wealth has been found even at the surface, both in the mountain of Gualgayoc, which rises like a fortified castle in the midst of the plain, and at Fuentestiana, at Cormolache, and at la Pampa de Navar. In this last plain, for an extent of more than half a square league, wherever the turf has been removed, sulphuret of silver has been extracted, together with filaments of native silver adhering to the roots of gramineous plants. Frequently the silver is found in masses, (clavos y remolinos) as if smelted portions of this metal had been poured upon a very soft clay. The produce of the mines of Gualgayoc or Chota is very unequal in proportion to the inconstancy of the veins which, at Fuentestiana and Cormolache, traverse alpine lime-stone; at Gualgayoc and the Purgatorio, as well as at the Cerro de San Jose, horn-stone, called panizo. This horn-stone forms a subordinate bed in the calcareous rock, as has been clearly recognized on digging the pits of Choropampa, to the east

* 2296 feet. Trans.

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of the Purgatorio, near the Ravin de Chiguera. All the mines comprehended under the name of mines, of Gualgayoc, on the Partido de Chota, have furnished to the provincial treasury of Truxillo, between the month of April 1774, and the month of October 1802, the sum of 1,912,327 marcs of silver *, or, at an average, 67,193 marcs annually. †

* 1,189,456 lb. troy. Trans.
44,095 lb. troy. Trans.

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This table, which was framed at my request in the offices of the intendancy, exhibits the quantity of silver given into the Cayana de Truxillo, as well as the duties of tenth and one and a half per cent. paid to the king. Of 11,791 ingots, nearly an eighth part, or 1450, came from the partidos of Guamachuco, and Conchuco. I could not procure the produce of the Cerro de Gualgayoc since the discovery of the mines in 1771 to 1774. These years were undoubtedly the most abundant of all; but as the money was sent at that period to Lima, the archives of Truxillo could furnish no information relative to them. It is very reasonably believed, that under a more lightened government, the Cerro de Gualgayoc would become another Potosi. In fact, its ores are richer than those of Potosi, and they are more constant in their produce than those of Huantajaya, and easier to work than those of

Yauricocha.

en

The mines of Huantajaya, surrounded with beds of rock salt, are particularly celebrated on account of the great masses of native silver which they contain in a decomposed gangue; and they furnish annually between 70 and 80 thousand marcs of silver. The conchoidal muriate of silver, sulphuret of silver,

From 45,942 to 52,505 lb. troy. Trans.

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