are known to traverse the mountain, any one of which that proves productive will furnish funds for the prosecution of the enterprise, as the extraction of the ore will be effected at once in carts. Should all these veins be cut in "Borrasca," which it is difficult to suppose, the total expence of driving 1,200 varas that remain, is estimated by the gentlemen by whom the work has been hitherto conducted, at 250,000 dollars, including a most liberal allowance for every contingent charge. Ultimate success is regarded as certain; for in the mine of La Purisima, which has been worked to the depth of 550 varas, (or eighty varas below the level of the adit,) the ores of the Veta Madre are found not to diminish in richness, nor the vein itself to decrease in width. Besides, as the drainage of all the mines above the Socabon will be effected by it, according to the mining laws, (the due observance of which is secured by the interest that a number of the most influential natives, who are engaged in the undertaking, will have in enforcing them,) the whole of these mines become tributary to the Company, which receives a share of the ores of all the levels drained by its labours, on the upper part of the vein.
The Tiro of El Compromiso was begun in 1804, and continued till 1807, at an expence of 168,000 dollars. It is now allowed by all to have been an ill-judged work, although the native miners maintain that the quality of the ores of Dolores Medellin was such as to justify almost any expence that could be
