THE SMELTING HOUSE. 



103 



going,) yet the engines must stop to repair the connexion, so as to 

 drive all three again. That the pretended objection is a quibble, may 

 be seen from the fact that the engines keep the shafts clear with 

 only two pumps, and do not work the third ; but I suspect that news 

 recently received from Lima of the discovery of large quicksilver mines 

 in California, which would bring down the price of that article one-half, 

 and double the value of the cascajos, (thus still diminishing the necessity 

 for drainage,) had something to do with the movement. A committee 

 of the gremio, appointed for the investigation of the matter, did report 

 in favor of stopping the payments ; but before this was decided upon, 

 some rich ores were discovered by the operation of the pumps. This 

 changed their tune, for, although they now only work the ores above the 

 socabon, they may, if they choose, penetrate below it; and if these 

 machines should show conclusively that there are richer ores below, 

 they of course would be glad to have them, and the gremio, therefore, 

 (including even some of the members of the committee,) voted that the 

 works and the payments should continue, and the matter should be 

 arbitrated. I of course get my knowledge and views pretty much from 

 Mr. Jump, one of the parties ; but I meet at his house and elsewhere 

 with men of the opposite party, and hear the matter very fully discussed. 

 I would have advised Mr. Jump, in any other country, to reject arbitra- 

 tion and appeal to the law; but the less a man has to do with law in 

 this country the better, not so much on account of its ill administration 

 as of its vexatious delay. 



I removed from the sub-prefect's house to that of Mr. Jump, Ijurra 

 staying with his relations, and Mauricio and the mules at board. 



The "callana" or sm el ting-house, where the "pina" is run into bars, 

 is a government establishment, and is farmed out. All the produce of 

 the mines has to pass through it; is here run into bars, weighed, 

 stamped, and the duties charged upon it. It is very rude in its ap- 

 pointments, a mere straw-covered hut, with an iron smelting pot in the 

 middle, mounted by arms, on two iron uprights like anvils. The pot 

 melts at one operation sufficient silver to make a bar of two hundred 

 and fifty marks, or one hundred and twenty-five pounds. Alternate 

 layers of pina and charcoal are put in the smelting pot ; fire is applied, 

 and air furnished by a rude bellows. When the silver is melted, the 

 pot is turned on its arms, and the silver poured out of a sort of ear at 

 the top of the pot into an iron mould below. From one and a half to 

 one and three-fourths per cent, is lost in this operation ; much seems to 

 be driven off by the irregular and excessive heat, and the sides and roof 

 of the hut are covered with a deposit of fine particles of silver, looking 



