Mexican Mines. 235 



hornstone, amethyst, carbonate of lime, a little sulphate of 

 barytes, sulphuret of silver mixed with native silver, and some- 

 times prismatic black silver [spivdglaserz), deep-red silver, 

 galena, and iron and copper pjTites. The same silver ores 

 are found near the surface of the ground in a state of decom- 

 position, and mixed with oxide of iron, like the pacos of Peru. 

 Near the San Pedro shaft, the pyrites are sometimes richer in 

 silver than the sulphuret of silver. 



"The mines of Moran, formerly of great celebrity, have been 

 abandoned for 40 years on account of the abundance of water, 

 which could not be drawn off. In this district of mines, which 

 is in the vicinity of that of Real del Monte, near the mouth of 

 the gi'eat level of Biscaiua, tliere was placed in 1 801 a machine 

 a colonne d^eau, of which the cylinder is 10'23 inches in height, 

 and 6-29 in diameter. This machine, the first of the kind ever 

 constructed in America, is much superior to those of the mines 

 of Hungary. It was executed agreeably to the calculations 

 and plans of M. del Rio, professor of mineralogy in Mexico, 

 who has visited the most celebrated mines of Europe, and 

 who possesses at once the most solid and the most various 

 acquirements. The merit of the execution is due to M. La- 

 chausee, a Brabant artist of great talents, who has also fitted 

 up for the School of Mines of Mexico a very remarkable col- 

 lection of models, for the use of students of mechanics and 

 hydrod^aiamics. It is to be regretted that this fine machine, 

 in which the regulator of the suckers is put in motion by a 

 particular mechanism, was placed in a situation where there 

 is great difficulty in procuring a sufficiency of water to keep 

 it going. When I was at Moran, the pumps could only work 

 three hours a day. The construction of the machine and the 

 aqueducts cost 10,937/. sterling : they did not at first calculate 

 on more than half of the expense, and they imagined the mass 

 of water to be very considerable ; but the year in which the 

 water was measured being exceedingly rainy, it was believed 

 to be much more abundant than it actually was. It is to be 

 hoped that the new canal which was going on in 1803, and 

 which will be 16,404 feet in length, will remedy this want of 

 water, and that the vein of Moran (hor. 9| inclined 84° to the 

 north-east) will be found as rich at great depths as the share- 

 holders of the mine suppose. M. del Rio, on my arrival in 

 New Spain, had no other view but that of proving to the 

 Mexican miners the effect of machines of this nature, and the 

 possibility of constructing them in the country. This object 

 has been in part attained ; and it will be nmch more evidently 

 attained when such a machine shall be placed in the mine of 

 Rayas at Guanaxuato, in that of the Count de Regla at Real 



G g 2 del 



