344 JANOS TO CORRELITOS, 
Although these smelting works are a very indifferent 
and primitive affair, yet they are said to produce a large 
amount of silver, and to yield to their owner, Sefior Zu- 
loaga, a handsome income. The ore is taken from a 
mountain eighteen miles distant, and brought hither in 
carts to be smelted. The owner was absent; but the 
superintendent was very polite tous, taking us through 
the establishment and pointing out the several processes 
used in extracting the metal, as well as explaining to 
us the various qualities of ore. 
One of the greatest difficulties which attend the 
smelting here is the scarcity of firewood. As there 
are no forests near, the roots of mezquit bushes are 
almost exclusively used. These roots, it is true, afford 
excellent fuel; but they are obtained with much labor, 
and the supply must sooner or later cease, as no more 
is produced. 
Correlitos is a mud-built modern town, containing 
about four hundred inhabitants, who depend wholly 
upon the mine and smelting works for their living. 
There is some fine bottom land near; but little of it is 
cultivated. At the time of my visit, the streets were 
filled with mud holes, half full of putrid water, in which 
swine were wallowing; and the people looked sickly 
as well as filthy, caused by the strong fumes of arsenic 
which proceed from the furnaces and are disseminated 
through the town. These fumes were so powerful, 
that when the wind blew towards our camp, half a 
mile distant, they were quite offensive. The super- 
intendent gave me some fine specimens of ore, as well 
as of the product in its various stages as it undergoes 
reduction. 
