440 The Andes and the Amazons. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



The Silver -mines of Peru: Cerro de Pasco. — Hualgayoc. — Puno. — Chi- 

 lete. — Ancachs. 



Peru was conquered and explored by the early Span- 

 iards under the belief that it was El Dorado; but there 

 are no famous mines of gold in the republic save those of 

 Carabaya.* It better deserves the name of La Plata, for 

 its Andes are threaded with silver. The annual yield of 

 Peruvian silver, however, is decreasing, owing to misman- 

 agement. A thorough scientific survey of the country is 

 needed, and then a judicious system of mining. We are 

 confident this will reveal 



" Rocks rich in gems and mountains big with mines, 

 That on the high equator ridgy rise." 



The most famous silver-mines in South America, after 

 those of Potosi, are the mines of Cerro de Pasco, sixty 

 leagues northeast of Lima. They are situated on the At- 

 lantic slope of the Andes, over 13,000 feet above the sea, 

 where the prevailing rock is conglomerate. The silver, 

 discovered by an Indian in 1630, occurs in the native 

 state; also as sulphuret mixed with pyrites, with cobrizo 

 (a carbonate of copper and lead, with sulphuret of copper), 

 and with oxides, forming what are known in Peru and 

 Mexico asjtacos and colorados. The ore is treated to salt 

 and mercury, but so rudely that generally one pound of 



* It must not be understood, however, that auriferous deposits do not oc- 

 cur in Western Peru. I obtained very rich specimens of gold-bearing rock 

 (a singular, decomposing, metamorphic rock) from Qnilque, near Arequipa, 

 eight leagues from the sea, in the coast range. The silver ore of Huamacbuco 

 and Pataz contains considerable gold. 



