Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/215

Rh worked by the Malacates at the surface, were constantly coming and going between it and the end of the tunnel, six hundred feet above. These buckets will hold three to four hogsheads of water, and are made of raw-hide in the form of an ordinary Mexican water-jar. An iron ring distends the mouth of the bucket, and when the vessel descends, the wet hide flattening down allows the water to rush in, and as the lifting commences, it falls back into its original form, filled to the brim with the dirty fluid. When the bucket reaches the level of the tunnel, it is hauled into the opening, and as the cable is slackened up it flattens down again, and the water escaping over the rim, runs off down the side of the tunnel.

But there are still lower depths. We went down nearly two hundred feet more, and at the bottom of the last level found men at work taking out ore. The dripping of the water at this point is very considerable, and two plans are made use of to get rid of it. A part of the water is carried up to the reservoir, in pig-skins, on the backs of naked and sweating Indians; and a part—the larger part—is pumped up to that point by hand. The pumps are mere straight logs, thirty feet long, with a bore of three inches, and a piston and bucket, pulled and pushed back and forth by two stalwart Indians, sitting on either side, working by main strength without even a lever purchase to help them along. There are stations or reservoirs at the end of each pump, and all must be kept going continually night and day. The Indian pumpers sit down to their work upon the wet rock, and are as naked as when born; the great heat and want of ventilation, at this depth, rendering clothing, if they had it, a superfluity. They get fifty cents each per day, and work twelve