duced to the confined and dirty rooms of the Ventas upon the road.
As it is not the object of this work to give a geological description of the Mining Districts, I shall beg to refer my readers to the Baron Humboldt s scientific researches for any information that they desire upon this point; and merely state here a few facts, without a knowledge of which, any account of the operations of the Companies established in Guănăjūātŏ must prove unintelligible.
The Veta Madre, or great Mother Vein of Guanajuato, has produced, since the year 1766, (before which time I have no returns,) 225,935,736 dollars.[1] It is composed of several parallel veins, running in the direction of N. W. and S. E., and varying in width, where they combine into one mass, from five to eighty varas. The miners distinguish the three principal branches of the Vein by designating them as El Cuerpo Alto, El Medio, and El Baxo; and it is observed, that the points where the three Cuerpos have been found to approach each other most nearly, and to be richest in silver, correspond with the valleys that intersect the direction of the Vein, in which the rich mines of Sĕrēnă, Rāyăs, and Cātă, are situated. The town has been entirely created by the mines, and is very irregularly built; the houses and streets being distributed rather according to the vacancies left by the surrounding
- ↑ This is the amount given by Humboldt's Tables of Produce, in conjunction with the returns from 1804 to the present day.
