Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/602

582 reserve formed, of 100,000 dollars. The ores of Santa Eulalia are generally mixed with a considerable quantity of Galena, which renders them fit for smelting.

Upon the Western descent of the Sierra Madre, eighty leagues from Chihuahua, is the celebrated and recently-discovered district of Jesus Maria. This "Mineral" was denounced in the year 1822, but was at first very little worked, in consequence of the scarcity of provisions, population, and every other necessary for mining operations. It was, in fact, nearly abandoned again, on account of these difficulties, until a few men more persevering than the rest, after suffering great privations, succeeded in working two or three of the most promising lodes, to the depth of fifteen or twenty varas, where they began to extract such rich ores that the attention of the surrounding country was again called to this spot. A search being made among the neighbouring mountains, upwards of two hundred metallic lodes were registered in one year, within a circle of three leagues