* 
OF NEW ALMADEN. 63 
The mountain rises one hundred and sixty feet 
above the entrance to the mine, terminating in a cone. 
On a level with the entrance, a quarter of a mile dis- 
tant, is the village, perched on the very summit of a 
rock, in which the miners live, with their families. 
This mountain, as well as the others adjoining it, is 
covered with grass, and dotted with small oaks to its 
summit. There is nothing to distinguish the mountain 
in which the mine is worked from the others; hence 
it is reasonable to suppose that they may also contain 
veins of cinnabar. ‘The intervening valleys are well 
wooded, and have a thick undergrowth. . . | 
April 5th. Set out this morning for the mine, ac- 
companied by Mr. Bester, on mules, as the journey up 
was fatiguing, and we wished to preserve our strength 
for the exploration of the various shafts. On reach- 
ine the entrance, we found all actively employed ;— 
the laborers emerging every minute from the mines, 
bent under the weight of their loads, which they 
deposited under a shed about eighty feet from the 
opening. Here the ore was separated, the refuse being 
thrown down the hill, and the rest laid aside to be 
sent to the furnaces. At the same time the mulada, or 
collection of some eighty or a hundred mules, was 
being loaded with the ore. This was put into sacks 
or panniers of raw hide, which hung across their 
backs like saddle-bags, each mule carrying on an 
average a carga, or three hundred pounds. Men stood 
by with a balance, in which every mule load was 
weighed, so that the exact quantity of ore sent to the. 
furnaces is known. The weighing is also necessary ; 
as the company pays so much a carga for bringing it 
