ON THE CINNABAR MINES OF UPPER CALIFORNIA. 45 
rial as a " cave of red earth," from which they obtained 
paint for their bodies, was first discovered to contain quick- 
silver about four years since, during experiments made by 
some Mexicans to smelt the ore for the purpose of obtaining 
gold, which they supposed it to contain. About two years 
ago it fell into the hands of Barron, Forbes & Co., who 
sent on hands, tools and funds to commence working it. Un- 
fortunately the vessel fell into the hands of the United States 
forces, and was confiscated ; the operations of the mine were 
of course delayed till the arrival of Mr. Forbes himself a 
few months since, with miners, tools, and whatever things 
he was able to procure in Mexico, to enable him to make 
a fair experiment on the capabilities of the mine. The great 
trouble was to obtain suitable apparatus for extracting the 
ore. At length four potash kettles were found, which were 
set in a furnace of adobies, with condensers of mason-work 
immediately adjacent — a wretched apparatus indeed for 
managing so subtle a thing as mercurial vapour. While I 
was at the mine the daily mode of working was to fill these 
pots in the morning with 1600 lbs. (400 to each pot) of the 
ores of average quality, broken in lumps of the size of ap- 
ples, put on the covers and lute them with a layer of sand. 
The fires were then kept up till near night, when the fur- 
naces were allowed to cool gradually. The next morning 
the condensers were opened, and the metal dipped up ; 
which usually amounted to from 200 to 30 Olbs. for the four 
pots. This was a much less per centage than the assay in- 
dicated, and it was obvious that a large portion of metal 
was lost. The upper parts of the pots and condensers were 
found to be generally coated with a crust of sulphuret of 
mercury, of which No. 15 is a small specimen. Mr. Forbes 
wished to devise some way of extracting the metal without 
mixing lime with the ore in the roasting, but was unsuccess- 
ful. At length a kiln of lime, which occurs in the imme- 
diate vicinity, was burned ; and I am informed that, mingled 
