218 MULE-HUNTING EXPEDITION. 
flame and heat to act on; thus more perfect sub- 
limation is secured, and a great saving of metal 
effected. There are blacksmiths’ and carpenters’ 
shops and a sawmill adjoining the furnaces. 
Until recently all the ore was brought down 
from the mine packed on the backs of mules, a 
most costly system of transport as compared to 
the one now in use. The vegetation only suffers 
immediately round the chimney, and even there 
not to any alarming degree. The flue, being of 
great length, carried at a moderate slope up the 
hill, and terminating in a very tall chimney, 
completely condenses all mercurial and arsenical 
fumes. Before this flue and stack were con- 
structed, even the mules and cattle grazing in 
the pastures died from the poisonous effects of 
the mercurial vapour; and its deadly action on 
vegetation was like that of the fabled upas-tree. 
The workmen now, as a rule, enjoy very good 
health, and are admirably cared for; the village 
boasts a capital hotel, and stages run daily to 
San José and San Francisco. 
A spring of native soda-water, bubbling up 
in the centre“of the village, protected and fitted 
like a drinking-fountain, is said to work wonders 
as a curative agent in all maladies arising from 
the effects of mercury. This spring is sup- 
