32 QUICKSILVER DEPOSITS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



carrying cinnabar exists in slates supposed to be Silurian in the Sierx'a de 

 Montenegro, which is the eastern end of the great Sierra Nevada. Cin- 

 nabar and silver amalgam, containing 6 per cent, of quicksilver, perhaps 

 kongsbergite, occur near Culvas de Vera, in the pro\ince of Almeria. 

 Copper and lead ores occur in the same neighborhood. At Aquilas, on the 

 boundary between Murcia and Almeria, quicksilver ore was found and a 

 furnace was started, but is not now in operation. Near the famous lead- 

 mining town of Linares, in the province of Jaen, cinnabar occurs along 

 the partings between strata. 



Cinnabar occurs at La Creu, in the province of Valencia. I have had 

 an opportunity of examining a series of specimens from this locality in the 

 museum of the Technical High School of Aachen. The countiy rock is 

 sandstone. The gangue minerals are quartz and carbonates, with which 

 the cinnabar is intimately mingled. Pyrite is also abundant. The ores 

 occur in veinlets in the rock, and some of the cavities have not been com- 

 pletely filled. The absolute impregnation is slight. 



Cinnabar is also found, according to Nuggerath, in the province of 

 Teruel, in a cupriferous quartz vein, and the same sulphide has been recog- 

 nized in the provinces of Castellon and Alicante, on the east coast of Spain. 

 Finally it occurs, according to the same authority, in western Spain, in the 

 province of Badajos. The Almaden district is close to the boundary of 

 Ciudad Real and Badajos, and a small part of it lies in the latter province. 

 Excepting at this point I could learn of no occurrence in Badajos. 



France. — No important qv;icksilver deposit has ever been opened in 

 France, though during the last century quicksilver ores were mined at 

 Menildot, in the department of Manche, in northeastern France. This 

 mine had a considerable production from 1730 to 1742.^ A mine is said 

 to have been worked recently at Prunieres, in the department of Isere, 

 somewhat over twenty miles from Grenoble. This statement, however, is 

 erroneous. Mr. H. Kuss, of the French mining service, who is stationed 

 at Grenoble, writes me that, from 1850 to 1854, explorations were made at 

 this locality, but without success. The principal vein carried small quan- 

 tities of blende, calamine, tetrahedrite, and galena, and the vein matter was 



' Burat : G^ol. appl., vol. 2, x>. l:in. 



