IRON SILVER INDIAN NECROLOGY CAVE BURIAL. 333 



from sixty to seventy-five per cent, of pure metal. Silver is also 

 abundant in the mountains ; but the mines have been carelessly 

 worked, and, in some places, are abandoned for want of suitable 

 machinery or enterprize. The principal districts and places in 

 which this precious deposit has been found and profitably wrought, 

 are at Gavalines, Guarisamey and San Dimas, in the two last of 

 which the fortunate adventurer Zambrano, acquired, during twenty- 

 five years, the extraordinary wealth he possessed. These mines are 

 divided into Tamasula, Canelas and Sianori, lying on the western 

 slope of the Cordillera ; and Guanasevi, Indee, El Oro, Cuencame 

 and Mapimi, on the eastern declivities. They lie about five days' 

 journey west of the capital. 



The following interesting sketch of Indian necrology is given in 

 the valuable and recent work of Miihlenpfordt upon the Mexican 

 Republic. 



In the State of Durango, — says this interesting German author, — 

 especially in the unexplored portion of the Bolson de Mapimi, 

 many relics of antiquity, important for the history of this country, 

 are probably hidden. In the summer of 1838, a remarkable old 

 Indian cave of sepulture was discovered in this singular region. 

 Among the few establishments which enterprizing settlers have 

 founded in that lonely territory which is overrun by wild Indians, 

 one of the most important is the estate of San Juan de Casta, on its 

 western border, 86 leagues north of the town of Durango. Don 

 Juan Flores, its proprietor, rambling one day with several com- 

 panions in the eastern part of the Bolson, remarked the entrance of 

 a cavern on the side of a mountain. He went in, and beheld, as 

 he imagined, a great number of Indians sitting silently around the 

 walls of the cave, Flores immediately rushed forth in affright, to 

 communicate his remarkable discovery to his friends, who at once 

 supposed that the story of the adventurer was nothing but an affair 

 of fancy, as they no where found any trace or foot path to show 

 that the secluded spot had been hitherto visited. But, in order to 

 satisfy themselves, they entered the cavern with pine torches, — and 

 their sight was greeted by more than a thousand corpses in a state 

 of perfect preservation, their hands clasped beneath their knees, 

 and sitting on the ground. They were clad in mantles excellently 

 woven and wrought of the fibres of a bastard aloe, indigenous in 

 these regions, which is called lechuguilla, with bands and scarfs of 

 variegated stuffs. Their ornaments were strings of fruit-kernels, 

 with beads formed of bone, ear-rings, and thin cylindrical bones 

 polished and gilt, and their sandals were made of a species of liana. 

 2a 



