264 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



transport in general prohibit the working of most of the other 

 minerals, notably iron (which in Brazil is so abundant), lead, and 

 copper." * Regarding iron, Professor Gorceix says f there are one 

 hundred and ten ironworks in Minas, producing three thousand 

 tons annually — not a very large amount. 



M. Liais refers especially to the enormous number of auri- 

 ferous veins which abound in Minas and in the neighbourhood of 

 Pitanguy, and insists on the choice of pyritic veins for further 

 working. " The chief question is to reduce economically a large 

 quantity of the matrix ; for if the yield per cubic metre be not so 

 great as from certain veins in California and Australia, the volume 

 is incomparably greater, which well compensates that incon- 

 venience. The use of hydraulic motors should be preferred to 

 all others, as being the most economical. These can be utilized 

 also for compressing air. By using them, a yield of five grammes 

 of gold per cubic metre pays the cost of extracting a pyritic vein, 

 except at very great depths ; and experience shows that most 

 veins yield double this quantity at the outcrop, sometimes more ; 

 and generally eight or ten times as much at a small depth. There 

 are still a number of mines unexplored, where streams exist suffi- 

 cient for large works. These are the most valuable. . . . But never, 

 in Minas Geraes at least, need one go far from the mine to find 

 streams capable of supplying a great motive power. In con- 

 clusion, no failure has ever yet occurred in the gold mines of 

 Brazil, but through carelessness of administration, bad direction 

 of the works, and absence of a proper study of the dip of the 

 veins." Any who are interested in knowing more about the sub- 

 ject I would recommend to read M. Liais's and Captain Burton's 

 books, which enter exhaustively into the matter from different 

 points of view. I will conclude this short note on the mines 

 with one more extract. "The generally received opinion that 

 the gold mines of Brazil are exhausted is a very great mistake. 

 There are still surface deposits of great extent which, with modern 

 appliances, could be successfully worked. The underground 

 wealth of the country is almost untouched, and if the mining 

 public of America knew Brazil better, I am persuaded that the 



* "Climats, Geologie, etc., du Bresil," pp. 291, etc. 

 t " Revista Brazileira," vol. v. 



