16 QUICKSILYEU DEPOSITS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



Nova Scotia. — 111 tliG iuu'iferous region of Nova Scotia cinnabar and native 

 quicksilver are said to have been found at Gay's River and globules of 

 the metal were washed from a soft slate at Wavei'ley.^ There is certainlv 

 nothing improbable in these reports, for cinnaljar and mercury occiu- in 

 many of the gold fields of the world. 



Santo Domingo. — Mr. W. S Courtuey^ cjuotes "an English writer about 

 the close of the last century" as stating that tliere is "mercury at tlie head 

 of the river Yaque." Mercuiy is also enumerated among the minerals of 

 Ilayti by Mr. J. D. Chaniplin, jr.* In Mr. Gabb's memoir on Santo Do- 

 mingo I find no mention of this metal. 



Mexico. — Ores of quicksilver occur at a great number of localities in 

 Mexico, the number of deposits being estimated by Prof A. del Castillo at 

 not less than fifty. He is also of the o]nnion that the countiy is capable of 

 yielding annualh^ the 2,000,000 or 2,500,000 pounds necessary for home 

 consumption.^ Most of the mines appear to be unsatisfactory, however, for 

 in 1882 but one quicksilver mine was in operation.'^ 



Quicksilver ores occur in the following States of Mexico, arranged as 

 nearly as may be in the order of their latitude : Cliihuahua, Durango, 

 Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mex- 

 ico, Morelos, Guerrero, Oaxaca. Those of Guadalcazar, in the State of San 

 Luis Potosi, and of Huitzuco, in the State of Guerrero, are the most im- 

 portant." 



According to Mr. D. de Cortazar" quicksilver ores in Mexico occur in 

 primary, transition, secondary, and tertiary strata, but are found every- 

 where near eruptive rocks. 



Humboldt describes one deposit as forming a vein of considerable width 

 and length "in veritable pitchstone porphyry." The ^valls of this vein 

 were impregnated to some extent, so that traces of cinnabar and metallic 



' H. How: Mineralogy of Nova Scoliii, 1861), p 61. 



■The Gold Fields of St. Domingo, 18G0, p. il9. 



^Encyc. Brit., t)tli ed., article Ilayti. 



'A note commnuioated to the Mining and Scientific Press, San Francisco, Jaunary 16, 1875. I re- 

 gret not having been al)lo to obtain a copy of this author's work, Monioria sobre las miuas de azogue 

 de America, 1872. 



''Ou tbe authority of Mr. Lorenzo Castro : Eucyc. Krit., article Mexico. 



••S. Ramirez: Riqueza miuera de Mexico, p. 'Jl. 

 . 'Repts. Phila. Interuat. Exh. 1876 to Parliament, vol. 3, Loudon, 1--7S, p. 389. 



