212 FIELD COLUMBIAN MusSEUM—GEOLOGY, VOL. II. 
writers upon the subject. Of these it will be sufficient to repeat those 
quoted by Witherbee* from analyses contained in the report of 
Robert W. Hunt, dated March 28, tgor. 
i. oe Bis 4. Sie oe 44e 
Percent. Percent. Percent. «Percent.. Percent.’ Percent) ences: 
SiS es eee iS ae GUTS Wino. eo 5.04 Cae | De vane e 
fy 0 nr mr Ne oe) OR Om We 
ABO oa arse eaee LeO5 £92 0.65 0.69 0.93 °.18 2.06 
CaO igi nee. Vera eae 3.80 eet 0.20 0.50 0.80 EY 0 
M Bian are) arenes o. 36 0.34 .41 0.09 O47 ove g 22 
SOg ve PRE) NS Re ie ae ee i 
S Hie Renee gus OL0LQ! 10. O17 GeO Oi 0, OTOP aaa 0.024 
Pig. eis ea ae, te Ree ine ee se. I ee 
epee wea 0.785 © 205369 — 20. 356." 0 .2TOR? | 0.300" Oo OG mea 
| Yom @ PR MNO ror ce Se ye 
cre eon. Cans eds coles 60448: 'S: Seam S005: 4 65. 55" 65.15% OF eos umeagneae 
Mae otra ee ©. 30 0.29 ©, 996 Voce oe hy 0.30 °o. 26 
Logs onden... hi ea wou 0.80 °.16 0.44 0.84 0.80 2.08 
1. Mass in place on N. boundary. 2. The ‘‘cave.’’ 3. Drift on E. face 
of property. 4. Bouldersin place on Ridgely peak. 5. Thecross. 6. West- 
erm face of property. 7. Stock-pile at furnace. 
The amount of ore in sight above the level of the plain is stated 
by Witherbee to be at a conservative estimate 360,000,000 tons. 
Explorations which have been made in depth have found no limit 
in this direction. 
The hill has long been celebrated, its existence having first 
been reported in 1552 A. D. In that year a Spanish captain, Gines 
Vasquez del Mercado by name, having set out from Guadalajara 
to search for mines of gold and silver, was led to the hill by reports 
of its being a mountain of gold. On finding it iron instead, the name 
of Mercado was applied to it somewhat derisively by his soldiers. 
In later years a report seems to have been quite widely cir- 
culated that the mass was a huge meteorite, and it is not uncommon 
to hear this stated at the present day. Weidner states that Hum- 
boldt thought it was a meteorite, but as Burkart shows, Humboldt 
does not say this.t Humboldt says of the Cerro del Mercado sim- 
ply that it ‘“‘contains an enormous mass of brown magnetite or 
micaceous iron,’{ although he seems not to have visited it. In 
another place he refers to a meteorite found in the outskirts of Dur- 
ango, which Weidner confuses with the Cerro Mercado. More gen- 
eral and persistent than the belief in the meteoric character of the 
hill seems to have been one that it would prove rich in gold or sil- 
ver, and many pits have been dug and many attempts made at va- 

*Trans-Am. Inst. Min. Eng., Vol. XX XII., p. 162. 
tNeues Jahrbuch, 1858, p. 773. 
tKingdom of New Spain. Translation of John Black, Vol. 3, p. 297. 
