76 CA VE AND CLIFF DWELLERS. 
and boiled in a little pot, as if they were 
making apple butter instead of working 
one of the richest veins of silver in a coun¬ 
try celebrated for its valuable silver mines. 
The resulting mass is washed out in a 
pan, as a prospecting miner washes for 
signs of gold, with the exception that 
quicksilver is put in to form an amalgam 
with the now liberated metal. The latter 
is pressed out with the hand, and the 
little ball of amalgam, as bright as silver 
itself, has the mercury driven off by a fur¬ 
nace only big enough to fry the eggs 
for a party of two. The pure silver ball, 
glistening like hoar frost in the sun, is 
now beaten down to the size of a big mar¬ 
ble to prevent its breaking to pieces. It 
is exasperating in the extreme to see such 
ignorant methods of man applied to the 
rich offerings of nature. 
