I 



I 



JOURNEY TO THE SILVER MINE 



climbed to the top of a large loose fragment of 

 rock, evidently to look for the hut on the road. 

 The view from San Pedro Nolasco, taking it all 

 together, is certainly the most dreadful scene which 

 in my life I have ever witnessed ; and it appeared 

 so little adapted or intended for a human residence, 

 that when I commenced my inspection of the lode, 

 and of the several mines, I could not help feeling 

 that I was going against nature, and that no senti- 

 ment but that of avarice could approve of establish- 

 ing a number of fellow-creatures in a spot, which 

 was a subject of astonishment to me how it ever 

 was discovered.. 



As the snow was in many places fifty feet deep 

 on the lode, I could only walk on the surface 

 from one bocca-mina to another ; but when I had 

 done this, I took off my clothes, and went down 

 the mine which it was my particular object to in- 

 spect. All the rest had long ago been deserted, 

 but in this one there were a few miners, lately sent 

 there, who were carrying on the works on the old 

 system which had been exercised by the Spaniards, 

 and to which these men have all their lives been 

 accustomed. 



