1868. ] On the Iron-pyrites Mines of Andalucia. 473 
iron. The altered rock seems to be the result of intense heat acting 
under pressure; the breccia and slickenside point to movements and 
rending of the rocks, the fragments being afterwards cemented by 
water percolating from the ore through the resulting fissures. The 
soft belt is probably only a portion of the porcelanized rock corroded. 
by decomposing agents produced by chemical action at the junction 
with the ore: such action is constantly going on, for the roofs and 
walls of the mine are thickly coated with incrustations and stalac- 
tites of sulphate of copper, and the water that flows from the 
workings holds in solution much of this and other salts. 
The mine is entered by inclined adits, and where these strike the 
ore, a level is carried in the sahlband of the southern or, foot-wall 
alongside the mineral mass: the overhanging of the solid mineral, 
which to a certain extent protects the tunnel, makes this side the 
best for driving. At right angles to the level, galleries or “ cross 
cuts,” about 40 feet high, are driven across the mass to the northern 
wall, ribs or pillars of ore being left between to support the roof. 
The ore is carried by boys in baskets, made of esparto grass, into 
the tunnel, drawn up to day in waggons, and conveyed on a rail- 
way, with startlmg curves and gradients, to the shipping-port on 
the Guadiana. 
Thus much of the mine itself: but the spot has an interest for 
others besides the miner and geologist. In the middle of this wild 
country, on a spot which but a few years ago was as lone and 
barren as all around it is still, there has sprung up a good-sized 
village, with the offices, stables, and outbuildings of the mine, a 
church, and the handsome house of the resident partner: weekly 
markets are held, and the place boasts its clergyman, doctor, and 
police. All this change has been brought about by the energy of 
a single man, to whom and to whose like the country owes no small 
debt of gratitude. For this material civilization cannot fail to lead 
some day to higher results. It will be envied and sought after by 
the people of the land, and will be found to be beyond reach so 
long as their present ignorance lasts. To obtain it, education in 
the highest sense is not needed, but some degree of knowledge is; 
and eyen if this be of the most technical kind, and have only the 
lowest ends in view, it cannot fail to rouse and strengthen the 
mind; and men, taught to think for themselves on one class of 
subjects, will soon shake off the fetters of dogmatism, and do the 
same on all; and thus by a side-wind we may hope that education 
proper will find its way into a land where any attempt to introduce 
it directly would be put down as profane, or revolutionary, or both. 
Undertakings such as this, whether they are started with such a 
view or not, are true missionary work, and almost the only kind of 
missionary work practicable under the circumstances. 
Of the large mineral deposits, that of the Tharsis comes next in 
