Cereo de Pasco Mines. Ml 



mercury is lost to every half pound of silver extracted. 

 Fortunately, Cerro de Pasco is only 200 miles from the 

 celebrated quicksilver mines of Huancavelica. According 

 to Herndon, the ore yields only six marks to the cajon. 

 (A mark is eight ounces, and a cajon is three tons.) A 

 representative specimen in my possession contains 0.004 

 of silver. During the last two centuries and a half, the 

 mines have produced about $500,000,000. The annual 

 amount of ore mined at present does not exceed 110,000 

 tons, each cajon yielding an average of four and a half 

 marks, the amalgam containing 22 per cent, of silver. 

 Just now, work has nearly ceased, owing to the inade- 

 quate means of drainage. But at Cerro de Pasco, as at 

 other places, it has been found profitable to rework, by the 

 improved modern method, the tailings left by the old 

 Spanish miners. The contemplated connection of the 

 Oroya Railroad with a line from Pasco will give new im- 

 petus to the mining interest, but it will not mollify the, ex- 

 cruciating climate. 



Ilualgayoc, fourteen leagues north of Cajamarca, has 

 long been celebrated for its rich mines ; but it is also af- 

 flicted with a plethora of water. The Cerro, unlike most 

 silver mountains, presents rugged, tower-like points, and is 

 perforated on every side to its very summit. The rock is 

 siliceous. There are many good mines in the vicinity of 

 Lampa and Puno, on the borders of Lake Titicaca ; those 

 of Manto, Salcedo, Chupica, and Cancharani were famous 

 in Spanish history. In the seventeenth century the mines 

 of Puno were inferior only to those of Potosi. The rich- 

 est ores are called brosa, rosicler, and pavonado; the first 

 yields forty marks to fifty quintals. The ores of Huan- 

 tajaya. Carmen, and Santa Rosa, near Iquique, yield from 

 2000 to 5000 marks to the cajon. Without question they 

 are among the purest in the world. Masses of pure silver 



