MINES OF MOROCOCHA. 



61 



CHAPTER IV. 



Mines of Morococha— A Yankee's house— Mountain of Puy-puy — Splendid view — 

 Pachachaca — Lava stream — Chain bridge at Oroya — Descent into the 

 valley of Tarma — Tarma — American physician — Customs — Dress — Religious 

 observances — Muleteers and mules — General Otero — Farming in the Sierra — 

 Road to Chanchamayo — Perils of travel — Gold mines of Matichacra — View 

 of the Montana — Fort San Ramon — Indians of Chanchamayo — Cultivation. 



We arrived at Morococha at 5 p. m. This is a copper mining 

 hacienda, belonging to some German brothers named Pniicker, of 

 Lima, who own, also, several silver mines of the neighborhood. The 

 copper and silver of these mountains are intimately mixed ; they are 

 both got out by smelting, though this operation, as far as regarded the 

 silver, had been abandoned, and they were now beginning the process 

 of extracting the silver, by the mode of grinding and washing — such as 

 I have described at Parac — after having tried the via humida (or 

 method of washing in barrels, used in Saxony) and failed. 



The copper ore is calcined in the open air, in piles consisting of 

 alternate layers of ore and coal, which burn for a month. The ore thus 

 calcined is taken to ovens, built of brick imported from the United 

 States, and sufficient heat is employed to melt the copper, which runs 

 off into moulds below; the scoria being continually drawn off with 

 long iron hoes. The copper in this state is called exe ; it has about 

 fifty per cent, of pure copper, the residue being silver, iron, <fcc, <fec. It 

 is worth fifteen cents the pound in England, where it is refined. There 

 is a mine of fine coal eighteen miles from the hacienda, which yields 

 an abundant supply. It is bituminous, but hard, and of great brilliancy. 

 The hacienda employs about one hundred hands ; more are desired, but 

 they cannot be had at this time, because it is harvest, and the Indians 

 are gathering the corn, barley, and beans of the valleys below. A man 

 will get out about one thousand pounds of copper ore in a day. I do 

 not think the mines were at work during our stay ; at least, I saw or 

 heard nothing of them. I could not either get statistics concerning the 

 yield of these mines or the cost of working them, and I thought that I 

 noticed some reserve upon this subject. The director told me that the 

 silver ore of this region was very rich, and spoke of specimens that 

 yielded one thousand, and even fifteen hundred, marks to the caxon. 



