SIERRA MADRES’ MINERAL WEALTH. 317 
date, all of the new mines being in the 
Sierra Madres, where not one in a hun¬ 
dred can be worked unless of fabulous 
richness. One of the new railways pro¬ 
jected into this part of Mexico made 
a most thorough examination of this 
mining belt to see what could be de¬ 
pended on for freight, and their chief 
engineer told me that no less than two 
thousand mines of silver that do not pay 
now could be made to do so by the cheap 
transportation of a railway. If one will 
reflect that there are now in the whole 
of Mexico but 1247 mines being worked 
(gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, and cinna¬ 
bar), it is easy to see that my statement 
of this being the richest mining district 
of Mexico, and therefore of America, 
will admit of no doubt, and especially in 
a prospective sense. Already, in antici- 
