have looked upon themselves as a degenerate race, as to size, for they said, "You are welcome to the gold and silver if you want it, but leave us the bones of our great ancestors."

The first mine of the Altai chain was opened in 1728. We learn from a recently published work on Mining, that "An official return of the Russian government of the amount of gold collected in the Ural and Altai from 1829 to 1848 inclusive, or through twenty years, gives a total of 16,420 poods; and reckoning each pood at £2,000, the result is £32,840,000 for the whole period, or an average of £1,642,000 per annum. It is remarkable that in both these districts decided evidence exists in pits and galleries sometimes containing relics of implements, of their treasures having been freely drawn upon in remote antiquity. Near the silver mine of the Schlangenberg, or Snake Mountain, there is an ancient excavation extending a thousand feet; and a stone sphinx, discovered in one of these ancient mines, of rude workmanship, is preserved in the Museum of Varnaul. These monuments appear to throw light upon a statement of Herodotus, who speaking of the Arimaspes, the most easterly Scythians of whom he could obtain any account, refers to their mines of gold guarded by monsters and griffins, which Humboldt identifies in the bones of elephants and other animals at present to be found in the steppes between the Ural and the Altai."

But it is from the New World that is principally drawn the supply of silver ore which provides us with the utensils of luxury, and circulates as coin.

In Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico are still worked with profit the same mines which were known to the Aborigines, and had been excavated by them time out of mind. From the mines of Potosi in Bolivia has probably been drawn more silver than from any other district of the globe. They are situated in a coneshaped mountain called the Cerro de Potosi, which

attains the height of 16,000 feet above the sea level. The city of Potosi is built at an elevation of 13,314 feet, and on first reaching it strangers find respiration difficult. The mountain is perforated beneath the city in every direction, and for upwards of two centuries and a half the yield of ore was only bounded by the number of workmen employed; during that period the silver which paid royal duty to the Spanish crown was worth upwards of £230,000,000 of English money. But the city of Potosi, partly owing to the exhaustion of some of the mines, but principally to the constant political disturbances that have intervened, has passed the period of its greatest prosperity and been deserted by many of its 130,000 inhabitants. It now yields the palm of productiveness to the mines of Pasco, on the Andes of Peru, which are still prolific, though they have been worked without intermission for more than 200 years. These mines boast of two veins unexampled in extent and richness; one of them, called the Veta de Colquirirca, stretching out from north to south, is known to reach a distance of very nearly two miles, while it is upwards of 400 feet in breadth; the other crosses it at right angles, and is known to extend one mile and a quarter in length by 380 feet in breadth. Having numerous smaller veins branching from them in every direction, these two main veins are supposed to form a network of silver deep beneath the surface; the point where they intersect is thought to be under the market place of the city of Pasco. During the last twenty years of the eighteenth century, 3,086,420 pounds troy of silver were produced from these mines, an amount equal to about seven millions sterling.

The silver mines of Mexico are at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet above the sea level. The richest vein now worked is situated in the mine called the Veta Grande; it varies in thickness from eight to thirty feet, and, occasionally, divides into several

branches. In the years 1831 and 1832 this mine yielded a net profit of £176,000 and £196,000 to its proprietors.

The ancient Mexicans and Peruvians having been destitute of scientific knowledge, discovered nearly all their mines by accident. The mines of Potosi are said to have been discovered by an Indian, who, while engaged in the chase, grasped a wild shrub to assist him in his adventurous ascent; its roots gave way with him, and he fell, still grasping it. When he recovered his senses after the fall, his hand was yet holding the shrub, and as the sun shone upon the earth which it had brought down with it, he observed that it glittered and was powdered as with spangles. He climbed again to the spot, found a lump of pure silver, imparted the secret to his master, and the first mine was opened at Potosi forthwith. It has been worked ever since, and is called, "La rica," the rich: but whether the poor Indian was any the richer for this great discovery, has not transpired.

Nearly in the same manner the mines of Pasco were discovered. In the early part of the sixteenth century, an Indian shepherd was feeding his flocks on the pampas, near the lake of Llauricocho, in Peru, which is one of the sources of the great Amazon. One day the shepherd wandered so far that he could not lead his flock back to their usual resting-place, nor reach his hut; he, therefore, collected them in a declivity of the Cerro de Santiestivan, collected brushwood enough to make a huge fire to protect him from the cold and the insects, and them from wild animals, kindled it upon some flat piece of rock, and went to sleep. When he awoke in the morning his fire had burnt itself out, and as the ashes were blown away by the keen mountain wind, he saw, lying between the still heated stones, something white that seemed to have oozed out. When it became cold enough to be handled, he carried it home; and the secret soon transpiring, numerous

adventurers repaired to the spot, all of whom were amply repaid for their labour.

As in spite of the yield still afforded by these mines the great riches of the Incas is not sufficiently accounted for, most persons who have bestowed attention on the matter, believe, that some of the finest veins of ore remain undiscovered to the Old World conquerors; and that the manner of access to others of them, and the knowledge of their precise locality, have been lost even to the natives.

It is certain that the site of more than one metallic store has been effectually concealed, and Tschudi relates an affecting instance of how this was done in revenge for the death of a Spaniard, who had proved himself a friend to the Indians, and as a punishment for the cupidity and cruelty of the Spanish governor. There was a poor Spaniard, Don Jose Salcedo by name, who lived in the town of Puno. He became attached to a young Indian girl, and her relatives, coming secretly to the lover of the conquering race, promised that if he would marry her, they would disclose to him a rich silver mine, which the girl should have as her portion. The Spaniard being a man of better principles than many of his countrymen, took no unfair advantage of the girl's family, but did her the honour they so highly appreciated of marrying her; after which they discovered to him the site of the silver mine.

It proved to the full as rich a mine as they had said, and for awhile the Spaniard worked it with the greatest success. But the report of his wealth soon reached the ears of the Count De Lemos, who was then viceroy of Peru; his envy was aroused, and he desired to possess himself of the mine.

Salcedo, by his generosity to his wife's countrymen, and the benevolence with which he treated his miners, had won himself a high reputation with the Indians, and was greatly beloved by his adopted family. The

viceroy therefore found that the most plausible plea to urge against him would be that he was exciting the Indians against the Spanish government. Accordingly he accused him of high treason, arrested him, and he was tried and condemned to die.

He pleaded hard to be allowed to appeal to the court at Madrid, and to send thither the documents relating to his trial; he also proposed, that if the viceroy would allow him this privilege, he would pay him the daily tribute of a bar of silver from the day when the ship sailed from Calloa with the papers, till the day of his return. This recorded fact gives some idea of the wealth of Salcedo's mine, for at that period the length of such a voyage varied from twelve to sixteen months. But in spite of the offer of Salcedo, and the prayers and tears of the Indians, the viceroy, bent or possessing the mine itself and not a portion of its produce, ordered the prisoner to be hanged, and set forth to Puno to take possession of the mine.

But this cruel injustice failed of success; no sooner had the disastrous news of Salcedo's death reached the ears of the Indians, than they, with his wife, his mother-in-law, and a large body of her relations and friends, proceeded to the mine, flooded it, destroyed the works, altered the course of some of the mountain streams, so as to devastate the whole valley, and closed up the entrance of the mine so effectually, that De

Lemos and his followers wearied themselves in vain to find it. Having finished their work of revenge, the Indians dispersed and fled; but though many of them were afterwards found, captured, and tortured, not one would open his lips to disclose the longed-for wealth to the murderer of his benefactor, or point out the mouth of the mine; with sullen apathy they chose rather to die, and to this day the mine remains undiscovered.

All that is known with any certainty respecting it is that it was situated in the neighbourhood of