TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



low, and even grey yellow. They preserve a spe- 

 cimen of every shade, and showed us several hun- 

 dreds. The gold bar, when cut, comes into the 

 hands of the assayer (ensai/ador), who determines 

 the weight and fineness, by the trial with sub- 

 limate. For this purpose, he takes a piece from 

 one end of the bar, and in difficult cases from 

 both. In bars from well-known mines, the trial is 

 made only with the touchstone, for which they 

 have on copper pins the specimens from sixteen to 

 four-and-twenty carats (quilates), each of which 

 is divided into eight equal parts. The purest gold 

 which is smelted here, is of three-and-twenty 

 carats and seven eighths. The mines of Villa Rica 

 generally produce gold from twenty to twenty- 

 three carats, those of Sahara and Congonhas de 

 Sahara on the other hand, from eighteen to nine- 

 teen carats. That from the Rio das Velhas near 

 Sahara, gives from nineteen to twenty. 'The gold 

 of Cocaes and Inficionado is very pure, though not 

 of a very fine yellow, but often pale or copper-co- 

 loured. When the weight and fineness, and, con- 

 sequently, the value of the bar are determined and 

 entered in the list, the Brazilian and Portuguese 

 arms, the number of the list, the mark of the 

 smelting house, the date of the year, and the de- 

 gree of fineness are stamped upon it, and a printed 

 ticket is given with the bar, which, besides all the 

 above particulars, states the value in rees, the 

 weight which the proprietor gave in gold dust, 



VOL. II. o 



