Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/587

Rh Apartado, the separation of the two metals is effected by the use of nitric acid, and not by sulphuric acid, as in the new establishment formed in Mexico by Mr. Alaman. It is from the mines of Gūārĭsămĕy that the ores most celebrated for their ley de oro proceed. The proportion of gold is sometimes so large, that a very small "tejo," or cake of silver, which I saw at the Assay Office of the mint, was valued at 2,800 dollars. In the other mining districts of Durango, to the Eastward of the Sierra Madre, there is less gold; and in the lead ores of Măpĭmī and Cuēncămē none. About Tămăsulă gold is found pure; and it abounds in the whole Western declivity of the Cordillera, where native gold, or gold intermixed in very large proportions with the silver, are the characteristics of most of the principal veins.

A large proportion of the territory of Durango is situated upon the Table-land, and the capital, though surrounded in most maps by mountains, lies in the midst of a vast plain, which, to the North-east, extends, with few interruptions, as far as Chihuahua, and Santa Fé of New Mexico, from whence again there is a farther communication for wheel-carriages to the great rivers in the valley of the Missisippi, and through them, with the Atlantic, by the Eastern Anglo-American States.

To the West, (both North and South,) the Sierra Madre extends, forming a barrier upon the Pacific side; and the hot low lands of Cĭnăloă occupy the