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Show IU APPENDIX TO PAHT IlL c~o.;t, and 400 miles in \\ idth from cast to west, takin g- it at its great. l ~t extent. ~fir am/ ('/imatc.- The nit· is clt·y uncl the heat ,·ery great at t l1at sc,ISOI I of the ye:t t', wl~icll pr<'cedes the l'ainy S<'ason, which conml<·nr.es in June <HHI continues until September by lig-ht shoner~. During· the: other purt. of the year there is not the least rain ot· -;now to nwi~t en the earth. The atmosph e re had therefore bee omc so cfectririnl, that \\h en we halted at ni ;~ ht, in WI< in~ off out• l1lank<'ts tbe electric ll 11 id would ulnlo5t cover them with sparks, and in Chil1uallua we prepared a bottle with g-old-leaf, as a rccei\'et·, and ·o llectccl su!licient of the clect ri r..: fl uid ft·om a hear-sk in to gire a r'(lllS tdnablc ::;hock to a 111llllbei' or pet ~Oil S. Thi<; phenomenon ".1s more cons picuous in the vicinity of Chihuahua than in any other part that we passed over . .1 J't'ncs and Jlfin('ra/s.-This province nbouncls ln silver and gold n1it H' ·,which yield an imme11sc quantity or those meta ls, but not '>O g reat a re,·cmic to the king· as those '' hich m·e nearer the mint, Hlld <"O il "C(jtH.: ntly present a greater f<lci lity to coinage. I am not acqllaitltl'cl \\ ith the propol'lion or the metals which lite mineral ) idds in any instance, except in one of the sih C l' mines at Chilltlahu<~, which belon g-ed to a friend of mine, who inf(Jl'tlled me that hi~ m inc yielded him 13 1.2 dollars per cwt. I one d.1y, with Hobiuson, \\'Cllt through many of these fumnces and noticed the mannct which they pursued in analysin g· the mineral ant.! extracting the llll'tals, but, as I hac! prc Yiously asked seV'e t·al Spanish ofliccrs to acconq) ilny me, who had ~dw ,ty s declined or defcred it to a future pe· riod, 1 conce ived it probal>lc it was too delicate a st:hjcct to make a minute inquiry in to. I, hO\\ever, so far ob~ervcd the process as to le.trn th at tltc: minct·al was brought from the mines in hags, on n : lll ' s, to the ft1rnace : it was th en g rouncl or pounded into small lunq>s, not more than the ~izc of a nut, and precipi tated into water, in a ::.ie\ c which pe t n1i tted the smaller particles to escape into a tub, thl'ough srv('nd progressive operations. !·'rom the small particles whi ch l'en1 ainrd at the bottom of the tubs, after it had been purilied of the eHrthy cpwliticA, thcr\! was a proportion of metal extracted hy a nircl' process; but the h.\l·gct· parts were put into a fumacc si· 111i la1· to ou 1' it•on Cul'naces, ancl when it was in a state of fusion, it wali lrt out into a bed of sand pre pared for it which formed it into ut~I'<.; abouL the ~izc of our common pig iron\. averaged in value at abut!t :2,500 clolhu s. The ,t,t old wa s cast jnto a moulcl similar to a howl and ~tarn pc d, as ''as <'ach bat· of ~ilver, by the king's cssayct· rH· J•l<'ta l<.:, '·' itll its \,du,'. Tbcy wctc worth from 8 to 10,000 dol· APPENDIX TO P:\RT liJ. \ ~ lars. These masses of silvct· and ~old nt'e then received into tht> kin ~'s treasury in paymeut, and in fact have a cul'l'ency thr?ugll tltt• J iturdom . but there nrc vast speculations made on tl1e coi tl<lf~c, a-; l:C;J~Ie wl:o have not large capitals prcfet' sellin!~ thci1~ bulliot~, in the internal pt·ovinces, at a considerable discount, to hcmg oblt~<· d to transport it to Mexicn, in ot·der to have it converted i i.HO ~p tc it•.' The present C----, I was informed, was cn~;a gcd 1n till<> tralfic on which from the province of Senora, he somctimec; made 25 ' ' . ,. l)el' cent. Numbers or the proprietors who huv~ no l llll:le( l ~tte u-.~ for their bullion put it into their cellars, where H renwlus ptled.up fot· th eir posterity, of no set·vice to themselves o.r the co~nmu tHl.y. There arc at Chihuahua and its vicinity fifteen mmes, thtrtt'CII !>llvc1 ·, one gold, and one copper, the furnaces of all of \rlli cl.l arc ~ituateclround the town and suburbc;, and present, except on Sunda) s, volumes of smol'c arising to the eye in every clircction, which CJll be sr~ en from a dist:~nce long before the spires of the city strikr the view. Jt is incredible the quantity of cinders which sutTOlltHl the city in piles t(!n ot' fifteen feet higlt: next the _creek they have formetl a bank of it to c hec~~ the encroachments oi the stream, and it p!·escnts an e ffectual barrier. 1 am told that an Europcau employed some hands and wroul;ht at the cirdcrs and that it yielded one dollat' and twenty-five cents for each per day; but that this not answering his cxpcctationc:;, he ceasecl his proceeding!;. At l\lausseme there is one gold and ~ev n sil vc1' mines. At Dm-..mgo th ere arc many an<l rich mines, but the nurn bcT to me is unknown. There are al-;o gold mines in the Sierra Madre, neat· A lornati, ~nd many others of which 1 have no kno\:led~e. There is in 1.1~~· province, about one hundred miles south o( Cluhuahua, a tnolmttun or hill of loadston-e. ' Valkcr, who had been on the ~round and sui' veyed it, informed me it appeared to be sol~d strata, as regular a-; that of limestone, ot· any olheJ' of the spec1es. H e had bt·onght home a square piece of neat· n foot and a hall', was p rcpn,..ing son~c to be sent to Spain, atHl likewise forming magnets to a cco~ np any.ll, in 01·der that th eir comparative stl'cngth n1ig-ht be a<;cct·tamccl Wllb magnets formed in Europe. . . Rivers.-Hio Concho::. is the brgest 111 the pl'Ovmcc. It take•; its source in the Siet·t·a l\ladre, ne<ll' Hatopilis in 28° ~. l tti tncle, and discharges itself into the lEo clcl N ort<.: i11 the S 1°, a l't~ t' "' course of about 300 miles. It is the l argc~t wcstem branch oi thL. Rio del Norte, and re c civ~s in its couJ·:sc the Rio Flut·ic!o fl'Uitl tl}r |