422 MEXICO. posits of Europe, are at a loss to comprehend the necessity of an expenditvire so large as that of some of the Companies has already been : I shall, therefore, take the liberty of submit- ting to my readers the following observations, which will be found, more or less, applicable to all the Mining Associations of New Spain, and may tend to throw some light upon this part of the subject. The Outlay of the Companies has not, in any instance, been confined to a single Mine, but has embraced a series, or suite of Mines, sometimes in the same, sometimes in dilferent districts, each requiring a multiplicity of extensive works, not only in the interior, for the drainage and extraction of ores, but on the surface, in order to turn to account these ores, when raised. It is in the immense mass of ores which they are capable of producing, and not by any means in the abundance of Silver contained in them, that the riches of the Southern, or Central mining districts of Mexico, consist. Before the Revolution, it was calculated that the three millions of marcs of silver, to which the average annual produce of the country amounted, were extracted from ten millions of quintals (hundred weights) of Ore ; so that the proportion of Silver did not ex- ceed two and a half ounces to the hundred weight.* The quantity of machinery requisite, in order to reduce this mass into a fit state to be submitted to the action of the quicksilver, by which the silver is ultimately separated from it, was immense ; and as the whole of it was destroyed during the civil war, it became necessary to erect anew, horse-whims, (Malacates,) magazines, stamps, crushing-mills, (Arastres,) and washing-vats; to purchase hundreds of horses for the drainage, and mules for the conveyance of the ore from the mine to the Haciendas, (where the process of reduction is carried on ;) to make roads, in order to facilitate the commu-
- Fide Report of Tribunal de Mineria, and Humboldt, pflfst>».
