were seldom near enough for a fight, and
the quarrel ended, as it began, in a contest to determine who could dig
the fastest.

Another peculiar feature of deep mining is the construction of the main
shafts. A description of the method of construction of one of these I
take from Ward's Mexico,[78] a book that is otherwise of little value
to a person seeking for information on the subject of mines at
Guanajuata, so great has been the revolution there in a few years in
the condition of mining affairs: "I know few sights more interesting
than the operation of blasting in the shafts of Los Rayas. After each
quarryman (_barretero_) has undermined the portion of rock allotted to
him, he is drawn up to the surface; the ropes belonging to the
horse-windlasses (_malacates_) are coiled up, so as to leave every
thing clear below, and a man descends, whose business it is to fire the
slow matches communicating with the mines below.

"As his chance of escaping the effects of the explosion consists in
being drawn up with such rapidity as to be placed beyond the reach of
the fragments of rock that are projected into the air, the lightest
_malacate_ is prepared for his use, and two horses are attached to it,
selected for their swiftness and courage, and are called the horses of
_pegador_. The man is let down slowly, carrying with him a light and a
small rope, one end of which is held by one of the overseers, who is
stationed at the mouth of the shaft. A breathless silence is observed
until the signal is given from below by pulling the cord of
communication, when the two men by whom the horses are previously held
release their heads, and they dash off at full speed until they are
stopped either by the noise of the first explosion, or by seeing from
the quantity of cord wound round the cylinder of the _malacate_ that
the _pegador_ is already raised to a height of sixty or seventy _varas_
[Spanish yards], and is consequently beyond the reach of danger."

The author then goes on to enumerate the risks that attend this calling
of _pegador_, and the consequent high wages that have to be paid to
persons who undertake this perilous office, all of which accidents and
adventures must be familiar to those of my readers who have paid any
attention to the business of blasting rocks; and as his hairbreadth
escapes have nothing in them remarkable, we may conclude this notice of
Los Rayas by adding his statement that the king's fifth from this mine,