he metal from the ore
was twenty, and the processes which they use in that state are the
_patio_ and the furnace; the last is the most general. Finally, there
has been put in practice a third system, by the house of Manning and
M'Intosh, for the purpose of separating the silver by means of the
precipitate of copper. The consumptions of the last year, 1849, amount
to $544,194, notwithstanding which the notices omit the returns of
various mines, haciendas, furnaces, and water-mills. The items are
quicksilver at $140 a hundred, gunpowder, lime, wood, sulphate of
copper, salt, iron, steel, metals of aid [metals thrown into the
compound to aid the process of extracting], tallow, grease, hides,
leather, corn, straw, grain, flesh, beans, and bars of iron. The number
of operatives is not known with exactness, because the reports only
refer to certain mines and haciendas, but in these they amount to 1833,
besides day-laborers at five _reals_ (5/8ths of a dollar) a day for
half the time. The most important improvements that have been
introduced into some of these mines consist in the establishment of
pumps for facilitating draining, and in the introduction of German
ovens for fusing a greater quantity of mineral at a less cost and with
greater perfection, being so much the more interesting as the condition
of the metals presents itself more easily to this kind of benefiting.

Four companies have been established for prosecuting the labor of the
mines, Presena, Rosario, Tajo, and Prieta. The first takes its name
from Senor Delille, the second is composed of Mexicans, and the last
two are composed of Mexicans, English, and naturalized Spaniards.
Nothing is known in relation to their capitals. Besides the precious
metals, we find lead in Naica and Babisas, of the canton of Matamoros;
copper, from which only _magistral_ is taken, is found in the canton of
Mina, and sulphur and saltpetre in the canton of Iturbide. The reports
mention nothing in respect to the authorities that take cognizance of
the affairs of the Mineria; but it is presumed that, as in the rest of
the nation, the judges of first instance take knowledge of
controversies, and the courts of mines, if by chance they are
established, take cognizance of the economy and government of the
mines.

The mint of Guadalupe and Calvo coined in 1848, $720,765, and in 1849,
$665,225, of which two sums $1,027,130 were of silver, and $355,859 in
gold, the whole being the proceeds of