166 ANCIENT MINES. 



The mines of Cerrillos, twenty miles 

 southward of Santa Fe, although of un- 

 doubted antiquity, have, to all appearance, 

 been worked to some extent witliin the pre- 

 sent century ; indeed, they have been re- 

 opened within the recollection of the present 

 generation ; but the enterprise having been 

 attended with little success, it was again aban- 

 doned. Among numerous pits still to be 

 seen at this place, there is one of immense 

 depth cut through sohd rock, which it is be- 

 heved could not have cost less than $100,000. 

 Li the mountains of Sandia, Abiquiu, and 

 more particularly in those of Picuris and Em- 

 budo, there are also numerous excavations of 

 considerable depth. A few years ago an en- 

 terprising American undertook to reopen one 

 of those near Picuris ; but fifter having pene- 

 trated to the depth of more than a hundred 

 feet, without reaching the bottom of the ori- 

 ginal excavation (which had probably been 

 filUng up for the last hundred and fifty 

 years), he gave it up for want of means. 

 Other attempts have since been made, but 

 with as little success. Whether these failures 

 have been caused by want of capital and en- 

 ergy, or whether the veins of ore were ex- 

 hausted by the original miners, remains lO'^ 

 future enterprise to determine. 



The only successful mines known in Ne>J^ 

 Mexico at the present d;iy,are tliose of gold, 

 the most important one of which is that ori- 

 ginally incorporated as El Real de Dolores, but 

 generally known by the significant name ot 



