SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 195 



The silver is sent from the mines in bars, 

 about two feet in length, and weighing about 

 1000 ounces each. They are first refined 

 and made to the standard quality, and then 

 melted into narrow pieces, from which they 

 are drawn by a succession of wooden ma- 

 chinery into long thin stripes of the thickness 

 and breadth of a dollar. This machinery is 

 worked in apartments underneath the build- 

 ing, from which the light is excluded; the 

 first process is executed by mules, the next 

 by men, who, for this purpose, are nearly in 

 a naked state. They are then taken by 

 another set of men, who, by means of a 

 screw-press, cut them into round pieces, of 

 the size of the coin : these are taken to the 

 opposite side of the room, to persons who 

 weigh and regulate them, by filing* off the 

 overplus weight : they are then milled at the 

 edges, and sent below to be whitened by 

 boiling in alum-water, and thence carried to 



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