152 Travels and Adventures 



and beautiful to be found in Colombia, but in the two 

 days' riding the traveller is obliged to pass through 

 some of the most dangerous mountain passes, and 

 over precipices where a false step would dash him 

 and the mule to destruction. On arriving in the 

 vicinity of the mines, the general appearance of the 

 place would give one the idea that it was an extinct 

 volcano, but the emeralds are found in the bottom 

 of the crater. The piece of ground now being 

 worked is surrounded by high mountains in a circle, 

 divine it the form of a basin. All accounts of the 

 exact date of the discovery of these mines seem to be 

 somewhat faulty, although it is certain that they were 

 known to the early Indians, for some emeralds have 

 been found in the graves of Indians who must have 

 been buried long before the conquest of the country 

 by the Spaniards. The present system of working 

 the mines has been employed about one hundred 

 years. The mines are now the property of the 

 Government of Colombia, who rent them to a com- 

 pany who employ five or six overseers and about 

 four hundred native workmen. The means used for 

 working the mines are very primitive, but they yield 

 every year a very large amount of precious stones, 

 which are immediately shipped to Europe. The 

 bank of rock in which the precious crystals are 

 found is more than one thousand feet high, formed 



