22 QUICKSILVER DEPOSITS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



region. In the environs of the town are hot springs still depositing sinter, 

 and so abundant is this material that tlie town is built of it. The most 

 famous mine is the Santa Barbara, close to the town of Huancavelica, but 

 there are over forty points at which cinnabar occurs, the most remote being 

 IS leagues (20 to a degree) from the Santa Barbara, and sixteen of them 

 within 2 leagues. The department of Huancavelica contains silver, copper, 

 lead, iron, and coal, as well as quicksilver. 



The deposit of Santa Barbara consists of impregnations of cinnabar, 

 mainly in sandstone. Some observers have pronounced it a vein, but Mr. 

 Rivero denies that this name is applicable and considers it a layer or bed 

 running parallel with the beds of limestone, sandstone, and conglomerate. 

 Humboldt points out that cinnabar occurs close to Huancavelica in two very 

 different ways, in part in true veins (filons) and in part in strata (couches). 

 In the Santa Barbara it occurs chiefly as impregnations in portions of the 

 sandstone bed, though much of the sandstone is barren; but he states that 

 in portions of tlie deposit the cinnabar forms stringers, which are sometimes 

 reticulated, forming a true stockwork or irregular reticulated mass. Ac- 

 cording to Crosnier profound disturbance of the rocks preceded the deposi- 

 tion of ore, and the deposit appears to me therefore to be a tabular impreg- 

 nation intimately related to a fissure system. The diff'erence between such 

 a deposit and a bed vein does not seem great or important. Besides pjn-ite 

 the mine carries much mispickel and realgar, differing in this respect from 

 the other great cinnabar deposits of the world, though similar associations 

 in smaller deposits are frequent. According to Humboldt the arsenic is 

 found almost exclusively in the lower levels. He also mentions galena 

 among the metallic minerals. Calcite and barite are the gangue minerals. 



The Santa Barbara was discovered in 1566 by Enrique Garct's, but it 

 had long been known to the Indians, who called cinnabar llimpi and used it 

 to paint their bodies. According to Mr. Rivero no historian has mentioned 

 that they obtained quicksilver by the distillation of ciimabar. He states, 

 however, that in the iumiediate neighborhood of the Santa Barbara there 

 are remains of ancient, very small, retort-shaped furnaces in which the sub- 

 jects of the Peruvian Incas reduced cinnabar. In this connection it is 

 interesting to note that in the northern part of Chili, according to Mr. V. 



