the number of the bar for the year, the number of marks it contains, the initials of the owner, and the figures 11.22, indicating the ley or quality. Remittances are made every week, and the expenses upon the silver before it is placed on board ship for exportation are thus enumerated: Cost of a mark of pina in the mountains.. Impost for steam pumping engines. . Public works.... Government or export duty.. Mineral tribunal duty... Loss in running into bars.. Carriage to Lima, and other petty expenses. $8.50 25 .61 50 121 12 61 37 $10 12 Twelve pennyweights is the standard of pure silver in the mint at Lima. The bars are assayed, and if up to the standard are worth $8.6746 the mark; for every grain below 11.22 a deduction of .0303 of a dollar is made. The remittances in silver bars, in April, 1851, varied from 4,500 to 7,500 marks weekly. The annual yield was about $2,000,000 in value. Lieutenant Herndon cites a calculation of M. Castelnau, by which it appears that the total yield of the mines since their discovery in 1630, to the year 1849, was about $475,000,000. The total production of the Peruvian mines for 45 years, from 1804 to 1848, is estimated by Mr. Danson' as $216,485,527 in value. He adds 25 per cent. to the official returns to cover the production of various districts not enumerated. His estimates are as follow: Apparently passed under official inspection.... Probably raised in districts whence no accurate data can Total, silver... $146, 853, 494 19, 053, 005 32,918, 660 36, 715, 498 $216, 485, 527 For gold he estimates that the official records show only 3 of what is raised. The returns being $11,837,587 for 45 years, he adds $19,729,311, making an estimated total product of $31,566,898 in value. It is believed that these estimates are too high, too great an allowance being made for the amounts unofficially exported, and for obscure districts. The present total annual production of the Peruvian mines is estiinated by Phillips at 299,000 pounds troy, the value of which would be about $3,000,000. Journal of the Statistical Society of London, xiv, 32. BOLIVIA. The mines of Potosi were discovered in 1545, and have furnished an amount of silver which Humboldt estimated at £230,000,000, or about $1,150,000,000. The average annual yield from the discovery to 1556 was about $11,600,000. At the end of the 17th century the production had declined to between three and four millions per annum. Chevalier, in 1845, estimated the annual production at from 48,000 to 60,000 pounds troy. In 1860 the annual yield was estimated at about $800,000. Chevalier estimates the total production of the Peruvian and Bolivian mines up to 1845 at 12,925,000,000 francs, or 155,839,180 pounds troy. The total production of silver in Bolivia, from 1827-48, is estimated by Danson at $57,052,034, and of gold for 40 years from 1809-48, $16,115,522, The Bolivian mint coined in 1849 $1,621,536 in silver, and $11,984 in gold. Much silver is smuggled out of the country to avoid the payment of government dues. The official record of production of gold and silver from 1800 to 1846, inclusive, is as follows:1 In the Cerro de Potosi and vicinity, in 1851, 26 mines were being worked, and 18 were neglected. According to the government records there were in the mining districts of Porco, Chayanta, Chichas and La Paz 3,089 abandoned silver mines, and only 85 worked.2 Report to United States government by Lieutenant Lardner Gibbon, 1853. Ibid. CHAPTER VI. SILVER REGIONS OF EUROPE AND ASIA. REPRESENTATION OF THE SILVER-LEAD MINES OF FRANCE AT THE EXHIBITIONSPAIN ITALY AND SARDINIAN MINES-AUSTRIA-SAXONY-PRUSSIA-ARGENTIFEROUS LEAD ORES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM-PORTUGAL-RUSSIA-ORES OF SILVER AND LEAD AT THE EXHIBITION-KONGSBERG SILVER MINES OF NORWAY-TABLE OF PRODUCTION AND PROFITS-SPECIMENS EXHIBITED AT PARIS-SWEDEN-TURKEY-ALGERIA-CHINA-JAPANESE SILVER MINES AND EXPORTS. FRANCE. The silver produced in France is almost all derived from silver-lead ores obtained in great part from Sardinia, Algeria, Germany, and Spain. The production is divided between the following departments: Bouchesdu-Rhone, Finistère, Isère, Lozère, Pas-de-Calais, Puy-de-Dome, and Seine-Inférieure. The ores and products of the following companies and establishments were exhibited: Upper Alps Silver Mining Company-Suquet Jun. & Company.—Argentiferous lead ores in various stages of preparation. Pontgibaud Lead and Silver Mining and Smelting Company-Puy-deDome, 24 Rue Richer, Paris.-This company made an extensive and brilliant display of the lead ores and products of their works, arranged tastefully in a large glass case. The ore was shown in large masses, and in the various stages of mechanical preparation. The products were lead in ingots, large bars, rods, and sheets. The silver extracted from the lead was shown in a very large mass, nearly a yard in diameter, just as it came from the cupel, and it was valued at 135,000 francs, ($27,000.) The ores are from different localities, and have in general the following values in lead and silver: Brousse, in 1,000 parts. The rich lead in bars contains .017 of silver, and the working lead 3.850. Mines of Meyrneis, Loire-Eugene Joly, director.-Argentiferous lead and copper ores. Villefort and Vialas Lead and Silver Mines Company-Lozere.-Paris, 33 Rue Bonaparte. Lead and silver ores, showing the mechanical preparation and the extraction of silver, together with a plan of the mines. Lead and silver mines of Argentière-Bessee sur Durance, High Alps.Granular galena in calcareous gangue. A large mass contains: lead, 43 per cent.; silver, 144 grams per 100 kilograms of ore, or 435 grams per 100 kilograms of lead. The following is the general average of the ores in silver and lead : Ore of first quality: Lead, 45 per cent.; silver, 200 grams to 100 kilograms of ore, 444 grams to 100 kilograms of lead. Ore of second quality: Lead, 40 per cent.; silver, 174 grams to 100 kilograms of ore, 434 grams to 100 kilograms of metal. Ore of third quality: Lead, 38 per cent.; silver, 163 grams to 100 kilograms of ore, 430 grams to 100 kilograms of lead. Urciers and Lignerolles argentiferous lead mines.-I. Javal, exhibitor. Argentiferous lead ores, with sulphuret, phosphate, and carbonate of lead. Lead, Copper, and Silver Mining Company of the Ardillats-Rhone.Ores and their products. Ste-Foy silver mines.-Rhone. Rigandeaux, Perdraux.-A. A. Clermont. Terrand, Puy-de-Dome.-Argentiferous lead ores. Gennamari and Ingurtosu-Sardinia, French Company.-The display made by this establishment includes specimens of massive galena with a fibrous structure and brilliant fracture. Some specimens are compact and granular. The ores yield as follows: It was not possible to obtain recent statistics of the annual production of silver by these different establishments. According to Dalloz there were, in 1852, six argentiferous lead mines in the Puy-de-Dome, and four in Lozère. In 1858, eleven were under exploitation, and among them those of Poullaouen and Huelgoat, in Finistère; of Pontpéan, in Ille-et-Vilaine. and Vialas in Lozère, and Pontgibaud in Puy-de-Dome. The ores from the last mentioned locality, in 1847, yielded 344 kilograms of silver, worth 673,674 francs. In 1851 the production of silver amounted to 1,522,874 francs, about $300,000. According to M. Oeschger, quoted by Dalloz from 5,000 to 6,000 tons of argentiferous lead ores are smelted and desilverized in France annually. The following table shows the weight and value of the silver extraction in France from 1853 to 1859, inclusive: 1 Compiled from Statistique de l'Industrie Minérale--Résumé des Travaux Statistiques de l'Administration des Mines. 1860. In the large and interesting exhibition of the various mineral productions of Spain, several of the most important silver mines and districts were represented. The silver mines of this country were worked in the most remote periods, and by the Phoenicians, Romans, and Moors in turn. The mines of Guadalcanal and Cazalla are in mica slate, but are not now productive. The most important mines are those of Hiendelaencina, about 70 miles north of Madrid, in the province of Guadalajara. They were discovered in 1843. The vein traverses gneiss and coarse talcose slate, in an east and west direction, and with a southerly dip. The veinstone is sulphate of baryta with a little quartz, and some spathic iron. The most abundant ore is silver glance, and the average yield is about 90 ounces per ton. The mines have been worked to a depth of about 1,200 feet, and since 1858 the yield has declined. The production of these mines since 1846, up to July, 1866, a period of 19 years, was 7,578,536 English ounces of fine silver, an average of about $450,000 a year.1 In According to M. Petitgand2 the value of the silver production in Spain from 1841 to 1848, eight years, was 50,329,895 francs. In 1854 it was 1,013,948 ounces, and in 1855 it was valued at 11,200,000 francs.3 1858 the production amounted to 101,684 marks. The official catalogue, issued by the royal commission of Spain at the Exposition, was accompanied by some statistics of the metal production of the country, from which the following figures are taken. In the year 1863 the production of lead ores, argentiferous lead ores, and of silver, was as follows: 1Phillips's Mining and Metallurgy of Gold and Silver, pp. 263,264. Exploitation et du traitement des minerais de plomb dans le midi de l'Espagne, p. 27. Ostrechkoff; cited by Dalloz, p. 425. 4 M. Léon Vidal; l'Espagne en 1860. The value of the écu is not stated, and it is difficult to ascertain what value is intended It is probably 2,375 francs. The punctuation of the figures is given as in the original. |