MINES. 



51 



ore, and are mostly red and blue oxides, and 

 green carbonates, with now and then the 

 brown and pigeon-breasted ; they cut easily 

 and smoothly with a knife, and yield from 

 twenty-live to sixty per cent. I have never 

 found any native copper in Central America, 

 though in Chili I have often found beautiful 

 specimens, especially from a mine that be- 

 longed to me in that country ; and I never 

 found a trace, except one, of any copper 

 mine ever having been worked, or even at- 

 tempted ; and the exception was a mere hole 

 six feet deep, evidently of late date. The 

 ancient race who lived in this country long 

 before they were driven out by the Mexicans, 

 who in turn succumbed to the Spaniards, 

 have left no trace of copper workmanship, 

 though they have of gold and silver ; and in 

 some of the districts in Central America 

 there are remains of rather extensive gold 

 and silver mines, and one or two of cinnibar ; 

 they are generally, contrary to the case in 

 the copper ore, combined with a large pro- 

 portion of sulphur, and are invariably so 

 hard that it is wonderful how much has 

 been done without gunpowder, for there is 

 not a single mark of a blast. They have 

 been abandoned for ages, and it will be 



