three leagues across the mountains in order to see it.
After returning from San Ăgŭstīn, I passed the whole of the afternoon at the Hacienda of Sălgādŏ, in which the ores of the Valenciana Mine are reduced. The Hacienda contains forty-two arrastres, or crushing-mills, and thirty-six stampers, and the works are under the direction of a young Mexican, Don Pedro Bĕlāūzărān, celebrated for his skill as an amalgamator, which he appears to have inherited from his father, who was one of the most distinguished miners and "Rescatadores" of Guanajuato, before the Revolution. Under his tuition I endeavoured to acquire an idea of this complicated process, which I shall proceed to lay before my readers, never having myself found in any work a description calculated to convey all the information which I wished to obtain respecting it.
The ore, on being extracted from the mine, is placed in the hands of "Pĕpĕnădōrĕs," men and women, who break all the larger pieces with hammers, and, after rejecting those in which no metallic particles are contained, divide the rest into three classes, called, in mining language, "Ăzōguĕs," and "Ăpŏlvillādŏs," "Buenos" or "Ordinarios." The "Ăzōguĕs" are the inferior ores, in which the matrix contains but a thin sprinkling of silver. As this increases, it becomes "Apolvillado ordinario,"
