Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/474

466 the reason that the substance sought is so precious, all these haciendas, mills, and mines are surrounded with high stone walls, that of San Miguel being quite twenty feet high, enclosing six or eight acres.

This was the former residence of the Counts of Regla, and their house, more than one hundred years old, is yet standing, while the gardens of San Miguel are famous throughout Hidalgo. Here the springs have their source, that swell into streams, and finally unite in the river that has worn its way through the basaltic formation of Regla. The hills circle round on three sides, but are open on the north, where the river flows out; an extensive wood fills this open amphitheatre, visible, as it nestles in the shelter of the ridge, for many miles. The most accessible portion of this basin, just outside and south of the enclosing wall of the hacienda, was once transformed into a beautiful garden, famous in the days of its glory for its lovely flowers and rare plants. The waters of the springs—called ojos de agua, or "water-eyes"—bubble up beneath shapely oaks hung with moss, and are detained by a solid wall, thrown across the hollow. Around the lake thus formed is a broad walk, with a low wall on either side, and at intervals are fashioned great curved seats of plastered stone, sometimes cut from the solid rock.

I doubt if there are as many mines now in Mexico as at the beginning of this century, when Humboldt estimated them at three thousand in number; but those in operation, owing to the introduction of improved machinery, are worked at greater profit. As the railroads are extended, and remote sections are brought into communication with the capital, they will increase in number and in value; but it will require many years to develop the treasures of gold and silver that Mexico holds concealed. Though the mines of Pachuca are among the richest, there are others in the republic yet more extensive. According to Sartorius, the Valenciana, of Guanajuato, a mine that yielded its owners an annual profit of a million dollars, has shafts and adits that cost several millions, and a lofty and broad spiral path is cut through firm rock to a depth of over five