THE CASCAJOS. 



103 



engine drivers ; the digging of ditches for the supply of water ; fuel ; and 

 all such expenses to which the other haciendas are not subject, I could 

 not well calculate. 



Mr. Fletcher, who has lived a long time in Cerro Pasco, says that a 

 purchaser of the ores (making sure of his " guias " or experiments on 

 the yield of the ore) can count his gains as easily and certainly as he 

 can the dollars in his pocket ; that those men who lose are either the 

 lazy and the careless, or the speculators and lookers after rich ores, 

 to make a fortune at once. The most common and easily obtained 

 ores here are called " cascajos" They do not require roasting, as do the 

 ores at Parac ; but otherwise the silver is got out in the same manner 

 as I have described it to be at that place. Instead, however, of the 

 ground ore being placed in small piles, and, after being mixed with salt 

 and mercury, trodden with the feet, and worked with hoes as- it is at 

 Parac, a large quantity is placed in a circular enclosure, with a stone 

 floor and mud wall, and it is trodden with horses (as we used in old 

 times to " tread wheat " in Virginia) until the amalgamation is com- 

 pleted. The general yield of the cascajos is six marks to the caxon. 

 Their cost, according to the hardness of the rock in which they are 

 enclosed, or their distance from the surface, is from six to sixteen dollars. 

 Here is a calculation to show that, even at their highest price, of sixteen 

 dollars, (being assured by the guia that the caxon will yield six marks,) 

 their working, or benificiation, as it is called here, will pay. The com- 

 plete amalgamation in the " circo" or circle, requires from forty to fifty 

 days. 



Dr. Circo of six caxones, a $16 caxon - $96 00 



150 mule loads, (transportation to the hacienda,) a 25 



cents 37 50 



Grinding, a $10 60 00 



Magistral, (calcined iron pyrites,) 1 arroba - - - 1 00 



40 arrobas of salt, a 50 cents 20 00 



5 tramplings by horses, a $5 25 00 



"Working and washing the amalgam - - - - 1150 

 Loss of 35 lbs. quicksilver, a $1 3500 



286 00 



Cr. 6 caxones, at 6 marks caxon, 36 marks. (Mark is worth 



in Cerro Pasco $8 50) 3 #6 00 



