362 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. IV. 



led to the adoption of the present form ; with the exception of the 

 above mentioned change the process is identical as first practised. 



In 1588 Don Juan De Corduba, a Spaniard, applied to the court of 

 Vienna proposing " to extract silver from its ore whether poor or rich 

 by mercury, and in a short space of time." He made several experi- 

 ments on a small scale on several kinds of ore which succeeded very 

 well, but on attempting with (20) twenty quintals he failed, and one 

 Lazarus Erker, who was employed to give in a report on the process, 

 disapproved of the method and here it dropped. Baron Inigo Born 

 imputed the failure to his ore not being calcined, his not using salt and 

 the weather being cold. A writer of that period adds to an account of 

 this failure that " Corduba could have remedied the last cause of failure, 

 namely, the cold weather," and I believe he could. The Tintin process- 

 as practi.sed in Chili was really a modification of the "streaming for 

 gold " process, and though not generally known was invented b)' a 

 Franciscan Friar ; it was applicable only to ores containing free metal, 

 the apparatus being a stone mortar nine (q") inches deep and 9" wide ; 

 the ore being ground along with mercury in it by an iron pestle ; the 

 metal contained in the overflow being caught and settled in tanks, after- 

 wards to be treated by the Patio process. This was in use from the 

 sixteenth century in Chili and Peru. The Trapiche and Maray were 

 likewise a modification of the " streaming for gold " process, and some 

 give Barba the credit of having invented them, although I believe he does 

 not claim the honour. The Trapiche is the modern Chilian mill ; both 

 have been in use since the sixteenth century. 



" The Tina System," or " Sistema de Cooper," as practised in Chili is 

 really a modification of the old abandoned Norwegian process, which I 

 before mentioned, and from about 1825 has been used very extensively 

 and successfully, although only applicable to ores containing free metal. 

 The machinery is greatly unproved over the old Norwegian. 



Stove amalgamation as practised in Me.xico is merely a modification 

 of the I'atio, in which the regular process is interrupted in the middle, the 

 ore being conveyed to an estufa or stove, where it is gently heated for 

 two or three days when the Patio process is resumed. 



During last century Baron Inigo Du Born succeeded, notwithstanding 

 obstacles thrown in his way, in introducing his amalgamating pr'ocess at 

 Chemnitz, in Lower Hungary. The process consisted in first stamping 

 the ore dry to a coarse sand (Du Born remarking that " wet stamping 

 would bring on great loss of silver and expensive contrivances to prevent 

 or recover it"). The battery consisted of three stamps to each mortar» 

 the sole or bottom alone being cast iron, each stamp-head weighing 



