THE MINES. 



109 



time have been expended on them ten million five hundred and eighty- 

 seven thousand eight hundred and forty-five dollars. 



S. S. Rivero and Pierola formed a society in the year 1828 for the 

 working of these mines, but the scheme fell through. Many other prop- 

 ositions have been also made to the Peruvian government, since the 

 independence, for the working of them, but have failed of success. The 

 liberator (Bolivar) refused to sell them for a sum of six or seven hun- 

 dred thousand dollars. (Castelnau, vol. 4, page 226.) 



I met a gentleman in Cerro Pasco who was then on his way to ex- 

 amine and report upon the mines of Huancavelica. 



July 8. — Visited the mines. We entered a mouth which seemed 

 only a little larger than that of a common well; each of the party 

 furnished with a tallow candle, shipped in an iron contrivance at the end 

 of a staff. The descent was disagreeable, and, to the tyro, seemed dan- 

 gerous. It was at an angle of at least 75° from the horizontal line; the 

 earth was moist, and the steps merely holes dug for the heels at irregu- 

 lar distances. I feared ever} 7 moment that my boot-heel would slip, and 

 that I should " come with a surge " upon my next in advance, sending 

 him and myself into some gulf profound. I was heartily glad when we 

 got upon the apparently level and broad bank of the great socabon, 

 and had made up my mind that I would tempt Providence no more. 

 But, reflecting that I should never, probably, visit the mines of Cerro 

 Pasco again, I took courage and descended one hundred and ten feet 

 further, by an even worse descent than the former, to the bottom of the 

 pump shafts. A burly and muscular Cornishman, whom I at first took 

 to be a yankee, with a bit of candle stuck into a lump of mud in front of 

 his hat, was superintending here, and growling at the laziness and ineffi- 

 ciency of his Indian subordinates. I should think that these pumps 

 were not well attended to, so far from the eye of the master. They are 

 worked by chains and long copper rods. All the metal work of the 

 pumps is of copper. Iron is corroded very quickly, on account of the 

 sulphuric acid and sulphates which the water of the mines holds in so- 

 lution. The fish are said to have abandoned the lake of Quiulacocha, 

 into which the waters are forced, on this account. The sides of the 

 mines were covered in many places with beautiful sulphates of iron and 

 copper. 



Our exploration lasted about four hours; and we emerged at the tajo 

 of Sta. Rosa, where, seated upon piles of silver ore, we partook of some 

 bread and cheese, and a glass of pisco, which we found as welcome and 

 as grateful as manna in the desert. This freshened us up, and we went 

 to see the "boliches." These are hand-mills, or rather foot-mills, for 



