288 
CA VE AND CLIFF D WELLERS. 
a short time after the conquest to explore 
the country and extend the domains of the 
Spanish crown. Directly overlooking this 
beautiful little mountain town is the Rosa¬ 
rio mine, one of the principal mines of the 
district. Its ore runs from two hundred 
to two thousand dollars to the ton. In 
fact only the richest ores of any mine can 
be worked in the Central Sierra Madres, 
where everything is carried for hundreds 
of miles on mule-back at rates that would 
make a freight agent’s mouth water. Salt 
for chlorination works, that we get for 
five to ten dollars a ton where there are 
railways, here costs from one hundred to 
one hundred and twenty-five dollars a ton, 
and even much more during the rainy 
season of about three months, when all 
the streams are swollen and the dizzy 
mountain trails are dangerous in the ex- 
