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covered to the present day. After performing this work of retribution, the Indians dispersed, and neither promises nor tortures could wring the secret from those that were caught.

Though the mines of Peru have yielded and still yield vast quantities of silver, yet probably only a few of the richest lodes are worked; for the Indians, to whom other lodes are well known, will never reveal their existence to the white men. They know by experience how small a benefit they derive from the mines, which are to them but a source of severe labour. Thus they prefer leaving the treasures of the earth undisturbed, or use them only in cases of extreme necessity. In many provinces undoubted proofs exist that the richest silver mines are secretly worked by the Indians, but all efforts to discover them have proved fruitless.

A Franciscan monk at Huancayo, a desperate gambler and almost always in want of money, had by his friendly manners gained the goodwill of the Indians. One day, after a severe loss, he bitterly complained of his distress to one of his Indian friends. After some hesitation the man promised to assist him, and brought him on the following evening a bag full of rich silver ores. This gift he repeated several times. But the monk, greedy after more, begged the Indian to show him the mine-a request which, after repeated refusals, was at length reluctantly granted. On the appointed night, the Indian, with two of his comrades, came to the Franciscan's dwelling, took him on his shoulders, after first carefully blindfolding him, and carried him, alternately with his friends, a distance of several leagues into the mountains. Here they halted, and the Franciscan's bandage having been removed, he found himself in a subterranean gallery, where the richest silver ores sparkled from the walls. After feasting on the grateful sight and filling his pockets, he was carried back again in the same way. On his return he secretly loosened the string of his rosary, and let a bead drop from time to time, hoping by this means to be able to find the mine. But, on the following morning, as he was about to reconnoitre, his Indian friend knocked at the door, and saying, 'Father, thou hast lost thy rosary!' brought him a whole handful of the loose beads.

In 1850 the mines in the province of Copiapo in Chili yielded 335,000 marks of silver, nearly as much as the entire

production of Europe, and the State of Nevada in North America bids fair to rival the riches of Peru. The ores

are found on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, in the region of the Carson River, and have since 1859 attracted a stream of emigrants to the Washoe Mine. At the present time they annually produce about 16,000,000 dollars of silver, chiefly from the Comstock Lode, which may be ranked among the richest mineral deposits ever encountered in the history of mining enterprise.

Thus we find veins and deposits of silver ore scattered throughout almost the entire length of America; and no doubt many an unknown Potosi still lies concealed in the lonely ravines or on the bleak sides of the Andes, awaiting but some fortunate discoverer to astonish the world with its treasures.

CHAPTER XXVI.

COPPER.

Its valuable Qualities-English Copper Mines-Their comparatively recent Importance-Dreary Aspect of the Cornwall Copper Country-Botallack-Submarine Copper Mines-A Blind Miner-Swansea-Smelting Process-The Mines of Fahlun-Their Ancient Records-Alten Fjord-Drontheim-The Mines of Rivaas-The Mines of Mansfeldt-Lake Superior-Mysterious DiscoveriesBurra Burra-Remarkable Instances of Good Fortune in Copper Mining.

YOPPER derives its name from the island of Cyprus, where

COPPER

it was extensively mined and smelted by the Greeks; but its first discovery is of much more ancient date, and loses itself in the darkness of the prehistoric ages. Weapons and tools of bronze-its alloy with tin-have been found both in the tumuli of extinct nations and in the lacustrine dwellings of the Swiss lakes, erected by an unknown people in unknown times. Among the Egyptians, the Greeks, and Etrurians, copper was in immemorial use, and the ancient Celtic nations fought their battles with copper or brazen swords, and felled the trees for the construction of their rude hovels with axes of the same metal.

As in many parts of the world native copper is found scattered over the surface of the earth in large lumps or masses, it naturally attracted the attention of barbarous tribes much sooner than iron, which very rarely occurs in the native state; and some fortunate chance or lucky experiment having shown that, when rendered malleable by heat, it could easily be hammered into any convenient shape, it soon became, and has ever since remained, one of the most valuable metals. Forming important compounds with tin (bronze) and zinc (brass), remarkably incorrodible as compared with iron, and nearly as tenacious in structure, but not so hard, it is recommended by its qualities for a variety of uses, and

its consumption everywhere increases with the progress of civilization and the extension of commerce. Fortunately copper is of such common occurrence that a mere enumeration of the localities where it is found would swell into a long and tedious list; it is enough to state that rich copper mines exist both in the Old World and the New, and promise an inexhaustible supply to the most distant generations.

In Europe England is the chief copper-producing country. Rich mines have been discovered and worked in Anglesey, Shropshire, Cheshire, and Staffordshire, in the counties of Wicklow, Cork, and Waterford; but by far the largest quantity is supplied by Cornwall and Devon.

The history of Cornish copper,' says Mr. Warner, is as a mushroom of last night compared with that of tin. Lying deep below the surface of the earth, it would be concealed from the inquiries of human industry till such time as natural philosophy had made considerable progress, and the mechanical arts had reached their present state of perfection; for notwithstanding tin in Cornwall seldom runs deeper than fifty fathoms below the surface, good copper is seldom found at a less depth than that. Accordingly we do not find that any regular researches were made for copper ores in Cornwall till the latter end of the fifteenth century, when a few adventurers worked in an imperfect manner some insignificant mines. Half a century afterwards, in the reign of Elizabeth, though the product of the mines would naturally be greater than before, yet little advantage seems to have been derived to the country at large from the working of its copper. Writers hint at the mystery made of its uses by the merchants. In the next reign, however, all mystery was dispersed, the mines were inspected, their value determined, and a system was introduced of working them to greater advantage.'

Yet so wretched was the knowledge of mineralogy before 1712 that the yellow copper ore, at present so highly valued, was considered of no importance and cast aside as worthless rubbish. Since the reign of George I. there has been so much improvement that, next to iron and coal, copper is now the most important of our mineral products.

The chief Cornish copper mines are situated in the districts

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of Camborne, Redruth, and Gwennap, which are about the dreariest of all British wildernesses. Few trees are to be seen, few fields; furze and wild berries form the chief vegetation of the niggard soil. Blocks upon blocks of stone are scattered over these desolate moorlands, that have been excavated, dug into hillocks, disturbed and turned over and over again, sometimes by the primeval stream-works of the old men or ancient miners, sometimes by more modern labour in search of metallic wealth. Off the roads these districts are utterly impervious on wheels or on horseback, and the

traveller can only walk, or rather flounder, over them by jumping from patch to patch of firmer land. Yet this scene of apparent poverty is in reality one of the very richest portions of the kingdom, and conceals more wealth beneath its sterile surface than has ever been produced by a similar extent of the fairest fields and pastures.

The bluff promontory of Botallack, not far from Cape Cornwall, conceals in its rocky entrails a copper mine, the most singularly placed, probably, of any mine in the world, for nowhere do the triumphs of industry appear in more picturesque connection with the magnificent scenery of the