14 QUICKSILVER MINES. 



halted, and after some words to the Indian guide, he said he had taken 

 the wrong road, and must go back some distance. After bumping our 

 heads, and walking doubled up in a most tiresome position, with great 

 want of fresh air, we finally stood up in the San Rosario church, which is 

 rotundo-shaped, with a height of 100 feet to the ceiling. Over the 

 altar was carved, in solid cinnebar, the Virgin Mary, with the Infant in 

 her arms. As the Indians pass, with hat in hand, they turn, and, kneel- 

 ing under their heavy loads of ore, say a short prayer, cross themselves, 

 and pass on by the light always burning at the altar. The laboring 

 Indian, who seldom leaves these dark regions, attends when the church 

 bell calls, and offers up prayer for protection from the dangers of the 

 mine. On a Sunday evening, in this rotundo, he meets his country- 

 men, who work on the opposite side of the lake ; they tell of seeing 

 daylight at the point of the chisel overhead, instead of driving it farther 

 towards the bowels of the earth. 



After a walk of two hours we came into the fresh air on the north 

 side of the mountain. The Cinnebar is so narrowly separated by layers 

 of sandstone, that the peak may almost be called a solid m.ass of quick- 

 silver ore. At present there are 120 Indian men, women, and boys 

 employed in extracting the metal. Those who cut out the ore work 

 very much as they please — that is, they cut without compass ; this 

 makes it dangerous to those inside, the proper supports being cut away 

 by the ignorant Indian. The ore is carried out at both sides of the 

 peak, in bags of raw hide, slung over the backs of the boys, and then 

 wheeled to the furnaces near by, where men break it up into bits, and 

 women make small cakes of the dust. These cakes are laid in the 

 bottom of a large iron grate, sufficiently open to allow heat to pass, and 

 over them the ore is filled in to the depth of three feet. A fire is made 

 underneath of coarse mountain grass ; a strong draught carries the vapor 

 from the heated cinnebar, through a retort of earthern pipes, slipped one 

 into the other, to a distance of five or six feet, where it condenses, and 

 the quicksilver lodges in the floor. After the ore becomes well heated, 

 which generally takes eight or ten hours, the doors of the furnace are 

 closed, and, for three or four hours, the distillation continues. After 

 this the quicksilver is swept into pots, washed in water, and dried, when 

 it is ready for the market, and is sold here at one dollar per pound. It 

 is sent off in all directions to the silver mines of Peru. 



By the rude method of mining and smelting, the loss of mercury is 

 great. The joints of the earthern pipes are luted with clay, through 

 which the vapor escapes before it has time to condense. It is difficult 

 to regulate the heat by the dry mountain grass, which blazes up and 



