THE BA TOP I LAS DISTRICT. 3 2 9 
for smelting, the temptation was very 
great to purloin a little with each depar¬ 
ture from the mine; and accounts of the 
sly efforts of some of the thieves appear 
more like the yarns in detective stories 
than cold facts. Ventilating tubes, small 
as gas pipe and covered with wire gauze, 
have been used to transfer the Vnetal from 
the interior to the exterior of the mine 
for quite long distances. Imitation kits 
of tools have been made of drills, ham¬ 
mers, etc., all of which were hollow and 
used for stuffing in stray bits of solid 
silver. Even candles and candle holders 
were made hollow and thus used for 
stealing. I could give a dozen other 
most singular means employed by these 
miners in their pilferings. 
The tunneling of the old Spaniards 
was very slow compared with that now 
