fore, a valuable article of trade. Besides the silver mines, rich mines also of copper, and some of gold, lead, iron, and tin, are found. The most distinguished mines of the State, of older and more recent date, are the following:
The mines of Santa Eulalia, near Chihuahua, have during the last century produced immense masses of silver, as the following fact may prove. The cathedral in Chihuahua, a most splendid building, was within the last century erected from a fund created from the proceeds of the Santa Eulalia mines, by a grant of one real (1212 cents) on every marc of silver (worth $8.25) obtained from the mines. This fund was created in 1717, and in 1789 the cathedral was finished, at an expense of $800,000. The amount of silver taken in these 72 years from the mines would, therefore, be $52,800,000. The abundance of lead found in Santa Eulalia makes the smelting of the silver ore very convenient. The mines are at present not yet exhausted; but from intrusion of water, want of capital, and the attraction of new mines, they are but little worked.
The mines of Parral (Hidalgo) are the oldest of the State, and have also been extremely productive in silver; but for want of regular mining, most of them, though not exhausted, are made inaccessible and worthless.
The mines of Santa Barbara, discovered in 1547, were renowned for both silver and gold ores, but are now entirely abandoned.
The mines of Batopilas were celebrated for the large masses of native silver, and the unusual richness of the ore.
South of Batopilas lies the rich mine of Morelos, discovered in 1826, where one mass of native silver was found weighing 230 marcs.
The mine of Sierra Rica, west of the old Presidio de San Carlos, was begun to be worked by a company in 1829. The prospects at first were most flattering: the superficial layers of the silver ore produced from one to a hundred marcs in the carga, sometimes 150, and in one instance even 327 marcs; but at the depth of 80 varas the mine seemed to give out, and the invasions of hostile Indians became at the same time so troublesome, that the mine was abandoned.
Such extreme richness of the ore is of course not a common occurrence; and the result, found by comparison of Mexican and European mines, that the mines in Mexico are generally poorer as to the relative amount of silver, but far superior as to abundance and extent of the ore, seems also to correspond with the mines in the State of Chihuahua; because a silver mine furnishing from three to four ounces of silver in the carga, is generally considered good enough to be worked with advantage; and many with less per cent, are rendered profitable.
In recent times, the mines of Guazapares and of Jesus Maria have attracted most of the capital of the State. The latter, southwest from Chihuahua, on the height of the Sierra Madre, were discovered in 1821; and so many valuable silver mines, and some gold mines, too, have since that time been opened, that it promises to be for a long time one of the richest mining districts in the State.
Of the copper mines in the State of Chihuahua, the most celebrated is the "Santa Rita de Cobre," in the western angle of the Sierra de Mogoyon, near the headwaters of the Gila. The mine, known for a long time to the Apaches, passed through the hands of several proprietors, till in 1828 it was effectually worked by Mr. Coursier, a French resident of Chihuahua, who is reported and generally believed to have cleared in seven
