ay 
MINING OPERATIONS. 107 
sometimes built in successive tiers, one above 
another; the azoteas of the lower ones forming 
the yard of those above. 
The first mine I visited consisted of an 
mense horizontal shaft cut several hundred feet 
into a hill-side, a short distance below the town 
of Jesus-Maria, upon which the proprietors had 
already sunk, in the brief space of one year, 
the enormous sum of one hundred and twenty 
thousand dollars! Such is often the fate of 
the speculative miner, whose vocation is closely 
allied to gaming, and equally precarious. 
e most important mine of Jesus-Maria at 
this time was one called Santa Juliana, which 
had been the means of alternately making and 
sinking several splendid fortunes. This mine 
had then reached a depth of between eight 
and nine hundred feet, and the operations 
were still tending downwards. The materi- 
als were drawn up by mule power applied to 
a windlass: but as the rope attached to it 
only extended half way down, another wind- 
lass had been erected at the distance of about 
four hundred feet from the mouth of the cav- 
ern, which was also worked by mules, and 
drew the ores, etc., from the bottom. On one 
occasion, as I was standing near the aperture 
of this great pit watching the ascent of the 
windlass-rope, expecting every moment the 
appearance of the large leathern bucket which 
they employ for drawing up the minerals as 
well as the rubbish and water* from the bot- 
* Wat d so rapidly in this mine as to 
stop aeiele for aoa aa 
