NOTES ON SOME OXIDISED COPPER ORES. 475 



contains copper in fissures and cavities, where it comes in contact 

 with the garnet and occasionally elsewhere, but it is rarely rich 

 in copper. Some very promising veins of lead-ore occur in the 

 limestone quite away from the garnet ; also some very pure and 

 rich brown hematite. A great many mines are now being pros- 

 pected in the foot hills, bounding both sides of the plain, by 

 Mexicans, Americans, English, and even Chinese, and some of 

 these have given tangible results of considerable promise. The 

 most important of the lead mines as yet discovered occur in the 

 group of concessions known as La Estrella, about 4 miles east of 

 the railway, now owned and worked by the Kansas City Smelting 

 Co., but the owners of several other mines have " shipped " one 

 or more car-loads of ore to the El Paso smelter. The Victorino 

 lying about 8 miles west of the railway, and lately worked by 

 the Smelting Go. of Mexico, is for the present stopped, owing to 

 the failure of that Company. The iron and barytes though good 

 have not been worked, having here no commercial value. 

 Copper has been prospected over a considerable area, but the 

 only important workings are those known formerly as the 

 Magistral de Torreon and later as the Torreon Mines and 

 Smelter. They are situated about one mile from Terrazas 

 Station on the east side of the railwa3^ Here the exjDlorations, 

 though shallow, are of very considerable extent, about £30,000 

 worth of ore having been raised, smelted, and sold, from work- 

 ings which are nowhere so much as 100 feet in vertical depth. 

 It is from these mines that the specimens of ore forwarded with 

 this paper were obtained. 



Fundo minero de Torreon. — The " fundo minero " known as 

 the " Magistral de Torreon " occupied an area of nearly 800 

 acres, extending from the Mexican Central Railway, eastward 

 across the plain up to and including part of the first range of 

 hills. There were originally 13 concessions each of 200 metres 

 square, but by subsequent purchases the area has been increased 

 as stated. 



The original discovery of mineral in this neighbourhood 

 dates from about 10 years since — some years before the con- 

 struction of the railway. At first they seemed to be of little 

 importance, but the building of the railway altered matters very 



