variable, it cannot be depended upon, even for a certain number of months. The mines have been worked to a considerable extent, some of them being 300 varas in depth, and they are almost all in so dilapidated a state, that a considerable capital would be required to put them into repair. The water in the old levels is abundant. Parral has a numerous population, but with the exception of two or three small mines of great promise, and which require an inconsiderable outlay, it is thought that capital might be invested with a greater prospect of success in other districts, where the ruins might be more easily repaired.
On the Western declivity of the Sierra Madre, and in nearly the same parallel of latitude as the Părrāl, are the famous mines of Bătŏpīlăs. To enter into a minute description of this extraordinary district would exceed the limits of this work. I shall, therefore, only subjoin a few remarks upon its situation and produce. Its distance from Părrāl is about eighty leagues, nearly due West, and it is situated in a very deep ravine, similar to that of Gūārĭsămĕy. The climate is warm, yet healthy. The metallic lodes, visible by their elevated crests, are almost innumerable, and by far the greater number of them have never yet been examined. The principal mines are. El Carmen, San Antonio, Pastraña, Arbitrios, Dolores, Candelaria, and Buen Suceso, with many others which it is not necessary to enumerate. The Carmen is the mine that produced the enormous
