Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/495

 MEXICO. 455 223,082.* The ores of the mine, during the whole of this period, appear to have produced from five to six marcs per carga, (of SOOlbs.) and often to have yielded twenty, and even thirty marcs. Indeed, nothing of a quality inferior to the first could have covered the expense of extraction ; as, when the Candelaria had attained its greatest depth, (300 Varas,) the water was still brought up from the bottom of the mine in leathern buckets upon men's shoulders. The Ley de Oro (or proportion of gold) in the ores of Guarisamey, is very great, amounting sometimes to 2,100 grains to the marc. But, not- withstanding these advantages, the mines are now going fast to ruin, the works having been suspended during the Revolu- tion, and the possibility of re-opening them, at present, to any extent, being impeded by a lawsuit between the heirs and executors of the former proprietor. Without entering into similar details, respecting each of the other districts mentioned in the Table of the Northern Mines, (No. IV.) it will be sufficient to state that, with some few exceptions,t they all possess, in a greater or less degree, the same advantages ; (richness of ores, and veins productive almost at the surface;) that few have been worked to any ex- tent ; and, consequently, that the risk of making the neces- sary experiments there is trifling, in comparison with the immense outlay required by the old mines of the Southern districts, which have, in general, attained an enormous depth. The money invested in the Valenciana, or in Rayas, or in the Biscaina vein, would be sufficient to make a trial of half the Mining districts of the North at once; for no expensive f The ores of El Parral, Mapimi, and Cueacame, are amongst these exceptions, being poor and abundant. But it is worthy of remark, that none of these districts are included within the range of the Sierra Madre. They all lie in the flat country to the East of it, and partake more of the character of the Central and Southern districts.
 * rae Table, No. V.