20 



QUICKSILVER DEPOSITS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



Ecuador. — Near the town of Azogue (Spanish for quicksilver) cinnabar 

 occurs in veins in the more ancient sandstones. Between this point and 

 Cuenca, at wliich quicksilver has also been mined, fragments of cinnabar 

 are found with gold in gravels. Deposits similar to those of Azogue are 

 worked within the city of Loja.^ 



Peru. — Of late years Peru has yielded no considerable quantities of 

 quicksilver, though it was formerly one of the great quicksilver-producing 

 countries of the world. The most northerly deposit is that of Chonta,- in 

 the western Andes, close to the frontier of Ecuador. Mr. BugdolP de- 

 scribes the deposit as a bed in early Paleozoic rocks. It is composed of 

 clay, sand, pyrite, and cinnabar. The ore impregnates the sandstone foot- 

 wall to some e.\tent. In the direction of the strike the ore is replaced by 

 pyrite. Veins of lead ore cross the cinnabar deposit nearly at right angles. 



In the Santa Apolonia Mountains, near Cajamarca, globules of quick- 

 silver occur in trachyte. Specimens were exhibited at Paris in 1878 in the 

 fine collection of Mr. A. Raimondi.* 



Humboldt notes the appearance of quicksilver at Vuldivui, " in the 

 province of Pataz." There is now no such province, and I presume the 

 locality to be near the town of that name. The same geologist states that 

 cinnabar is found at the Baths of Jesus, to the southeast of Guacarachuco 

 (probably another form of the name Huacrachuco). These baths are no 



' H. A. Webster: Encyc. Brit., article Ecuador. 



' The deposits mentioned in Peru being somewhat numerous, the following table may be convenient 

 to readers. The latitudes are only approximate : 



Chonta 



Cajamarca 



rata?. 



Huacrachuco. .. 



Caraz 



Santa 



Huaraz 



Cerro de Pasco . 



Tauli 



Huancavelica .. 

 Ayaviri 



Localities. 



Latitude. 



Piura I i 



Cajamarca ' 7 



Libertad 



Huanuco 



Ancacbs 



Ancachs 



Ancaclis 



JuDin 



Huancavelica . 



10 40 



11 40 



' Zeltschr. fiir Bi rg-, Hiitten- nnd Saliuenwesen im preiiss. Staate, vol. 10, 1862, p. 391, 

 ■•G. vom Riitli: N:iliirwi.ss. .Studien, Bonn, 1879, p. 37-2. 



