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426 mountains, than by any rules of art. This is particularly the case with the amalgamation works, one of which sometimes occupies a whole ravine, the spaces above, on either side, being crowded with miners' huts. The streets are full of ascents and descents, many of which are so steep as to render the use of four mules in the carriages of the more wealthy inhabitants almost universal. The churches, and some of the houses, are fine, and the Ălhōndĭgă, a large square building used as a public granary, forms a remarkable object, and is visible from every side.

The mines are scattered in different directions round the town; and in the vicinity of some of them, little "Pueblos" have been formed, which may be considered as the suburbs of Guănăjūātŏ. This is the case with Vălĕnciānă, (where the population formerly amounted to 7,000 souls,) and Rāyăs; and, in a less degree, with Sĕrēnă, and Vĭllălpāndŏ. The Haciendas are mostly close to Guănăjūātŏ, and though now in ruins, their number and extent attest both the former importance of the mines, and the opulence of the Rescatadores, (amalgamators,) by whom these expensive buildings were raised. Few or none of them possessed a sufficiency of water to work their machinery, for which purpose mules were employed; and fourteen thousand of these animals were in daily use before the Revolution. The Rescatadores purchased their ores at the mouth of the shaft, relying entirely upon their own powers of