MAQUELIZO MINES. 
67 
Chap. V.— B. S.] 
in the afternoon of the 11th of April, before we 
reached Maquelizo, a small mining village, surrounded 
by pine-clad hills, and built on the hank of a river. 
We arrived early enough, however, to inspect the 
ruins of former dressing-floors and aqueducts, which 
evidently showed that, at one time, mining opera¬ 
tions had here been carried on to a considerable ex¬ 
tent. Of late years a company had been formed at 
Ocotal for the purpose of resuming work, and Don 
Concepcion Mocada was the director of this new 
undertaking. He was good enough to show us, on 
the following day, over every part of the Maque¬ 
lizo Mines, including Las Animas, San Jos6, and 
Santa Eosa, hut the impression we carried away 
was that they were not worth having, and that they 
had probably been abandoned by the old Spaniards 
when it was found to be no longer profitable to work 
them.* 
Having on the third day returned to Ocotal, and re¬ 
crossed on our way a rivulet with water sufficiently 
* “Maquelizo Mines. —Las Animas .—This mine is situated on 
a high hill. A great deal of work has been done on the back of the 
lode, and it appears from the workings that the lode is composed of 
small veins, as in every direction they have driven several levels and 
sunk several shafts. By these means the back of the lode is broken 
down, but in tracing it down the mountain it is found to be more 
compact. In the bottom level the lode is seen to have been worked 
in several places, back and bottom, for silver, but all works done 
in the bottom of this level have been filled up with rubbish by the 
present owners, the lode being probably of no value. The direc¬ 
tion of the lode is from north-east to south-west, and it inclines south. 
“ San Jose Mine .—This mine is situated about a fourth of a mile west 
of Las Animas, on the same mountain, but from the work done we 
T 2 
