100 
THE  MERCURY  OF  NEW  ALMADEN. 
condensing  chambers  very  soon  become  saturated  with  mercury  ? 
and  will  yield  a  profit  by  being  worked  like  the  ores. 
On  examining  the  box,  or  trough  of  one  of  the  series  which 
had  not  been  in  operation  for  several  weeks,  I  observed  that  its 
perpendicular  sides  were  lined,  to  the  depth  of  about  one  eighth 
of  an  inch,  with  a  coat  of  mercury,  which  on  being  touched^by 
the  finger  aggregated  itself  into  globules,  and  ran  down  to  the 
bottom  in  a  tiny  stream.  This  had  been  condensed  by  the  shower 
through  which  the  vapors  necessarily  passed  to  escape  by  the 
flues.  The  waste  water  is  conveyed  in  a  covered  conduit  about 
fifty  yards,  and  at  that  point  flows  down  the  hill  side.  This  con- 
duit— a  wooden  box  four  inches  square — is  lined  by  a  black  de- 
posit, which  consists  of  mercury  in  minute  globules.  A  barrel 
stood  at  the  extremity  of  the  conduit  and  was  full  of  this  waste 
water ;  I  was  assured  that  it  had  not  been  disturbed  for  a  con- 
siderable time,  probably  two  months. 
An  eagle  ($10)  held  just  under  the  surface  of  this  water  dur- 
ing a  minute  or  two  and  then  rubbed  with  a  finger,  revealed  the 
presence  of  mercury  :  the  stars  on  the  coin  were  of  a  bright  silver 
white. 
I  filled  a  bottle  from  the  barrel  and  brought  it  on  board  the 
ship. 
I  repeated  there  the  experiment  with  the  coin,  and  also  with 
a  slip  of  bright  copper,  but  they  exhibited  no  visible  evidence 
of  the  presence  of  mercury. 
A  drop  of  the  water  spontaneously  evaporated  from  a  glass 
slide,  left  a  stain  which  was  shown,  under  (about  450  diameters) 
my  microscope,  to  consist  of  fine  globules  of  metallic  mercury. 
By  evaporating  the  contents  of  a  watch  crystal  spontaneously, 
the  view  was  brilliant  by  reflected  light,  compared  by  one  of  the 
observers  to  the  starry  canopy  of  a  clear  night. 
I  found  by  comparison  that  the  globules  in  good  mercurial 
ointment  were  four  or  five  times  as  large  as  those  leffc  by  the 
Almaden  water  after  evaporation. 
Lime  water  produced  a  copious  precipitate,  which  collected  on 
a  filter,  and  then  submitted  to  the  blow  pipe  on  charcoal,  yielded 
a  very  strong  horseradish  odor. 
Very  slight  precipitate  was  produced  by  a  solution  of  chloride 
of  barium,  even  after  standing  twenty-four  hourSo 
