581 QUICKSILYEE MINES. Book III. 
occupied by a Frenchman — who supplied us with an excel- 
lent breakfast of coffee, tea, chocolate, ham, eggs, roasted 
chickens, and other delicacies which no European would 
have expected in such a locality — is the finest site in this 
region. It forms an estate of one square league in extent, 
bordering directly upon the lands of the mining company 
of New Almaden. 
This little mining city, with its fine hotels, the neat 
houses of the inhabitants, who are all more or less con- 
nected with the principal occupation of the locality, the 
excellent condition of the road in the valley, and of the 
single street along which the buildings are erected, leaves 
a favourable impression on the visitor, and the whole 
establishment, almost elegant in its appearance, is highly 
creditable to the company to which it belongs ; the build- 
ings, without exception, being their exclusive property. 
On the opposite side of the brook, which runs through 
the valley, is a mineral spring containing much carbonic 
acid with a certain proportion of iron, and it is not impos- 
sible that New Almaden will become in time a fashionable 
watering-place for the San Franciscans. 
The mine is situated at a considerable elevation above 
the valley. We left our hotel at five o'clock in the morn- 
ing to ascend the hill. The road by which the quicksilver 
ore is brought down on waggons rises slowly along the 
mountain side, overgrown with a dense vegetation of shrubs. 
It took us three quarters of an hour to walk up. We 
found the miners, who are all Mexicans, just ready to 
begin their day's work. We were struck by the decent 
and comely appearance of these men, who were all well 
clothed and fed, and some of them had quite an in- 
telligent expression. They receive very high wages, at 
least the directors and owners of European mines will 
