66 



MINERALOGY. 



several smaller rivers, among which are those o^" Sullumarca, 

 Quinua, &c. There are, besides, a variety of lakes, formed 

 by the rains, which, as well as the rivers above cited, are 

 highly conducive to the operations of the miners. It ought, 

 however, to be remarked, that the lakes have greatly contri- 

 buted to the inundation of the mines. 



ACCOUNT OF THE „^ 



QUICKSILVER MINE OF HUANCAVELICA. 



Until about the middle of the sixteenth century, the 

 method of refining silver by the means of amalgamation, or 

 by the incorporation of mercury with the particles of that 

 metal contained in the pulverized ores, was not perfedlly 

 known. The usual mode of refining was anteriorly reduced 

 to a fusion efFedted by means more or less complicated, or 

 to the trituration of the ores, and the deposition of the me- 

 tallic particles in hydrostatic machines. Pedro Fernandez 

 Velasco was the first to employ mercury in the refining of 

 silver, in the year 1571 ; and to this respe6table Spaniard 

 America is indebted for the progress which, in pursuance 

 of the track he struck out, has been since made in the science 

 of mineralogy. • - - 



The mine of Huancavelica was discovered about the year 

 1566. It is of little import whether this discovery originated 

 in a lump of crystallized cinnabar, accidentally found by 

 Enrique Garces, a Portuguese, in the hand of an Indian ; 

 or whether a portion of that substance fell, by a fortunate 



casualty, 



