THE MINERALS OF MEXICO. 285 



there and in the neighbourhood two months, pursuing 

 his scientific studies, now on the mountains making as- 

 tronomical observations, and now in the mines, wresting 

 from Nature the secret of her richest treasures. 



We shall not pursue him in his various excursions 

 among the mines, but give here the result of his obser- 

 vations on the mineral wealth of Mexico. 



The quantity of silver annually extracted from the 

 Mexican mines was ten times greater than was at that 

 time furnished by all the mines in Europe ; gold, how- 

 ever, was not more abundant than in Hungary or Tran- 

 sylvania. For the most part extracted from alluvial 

 grounds by means of washing, it was occasionally found 

 in veins on mountains of primitive rock. The mines of 

 native gold were most plentiful in Oaxaca, in gneiss, or 

 micaceous slate. This last rock was particularly rich in 

 gold in the mine of Rio San Antonio. It was either 

 found pure, or mixed with silver ; there was scarcely a 

 silver mine in Mexico that did not contain some gold. 

 The principal vein in the mine of Santa Cruz, at Villal- 

 pando, was intersected by a great number of small rotten 

 veins of exceeding richness. The argillaceous slime 

 w r ith which these veins were filled contained so great a 

 quantity of gold disseminated in impalpable parcels, that 

 the workmen were compelled to bathe themselves in 

 large vessels w r hen they left the mine, to prevent any of 

 the auriferous clay from being carried off by them on 

 their bodies. 



Great quantities of silver were derived from ores, such 

 as antimony, arsenical gray copper, sulphuretted silver, 

 muriated silver, prismatic black silver, and red silver. 

 Red silver constituted the greater part of the wealth of 



