another; into opposite ends of the cross fit fork-like prongs which are attached to a spindle, at the top of which is a pinion to which a rotatory motion is given by a horizontal crown wheel, as many as eighteen being driven in this manner-the power employed being water-by one crown wheel, although there were also small ones in use which a man could work. The front portion of the tub was pierced by two or three holes, in the same line on different levels, through which the sludge at different periods might be withdrawn from within. The substance was ground, if coarser than sand, and concentrated as much as possible; about two tröge (according to Dr. Percy to from 40 to 50 lbs.) are thrown into the mill and water added, then 40 lbs. of mercury. Grinding now is started, but should the mill be able to take more it is added with sufficient water to prevent stiffness. Grinding is continued until the whole is brought to a state of mud, when the top plug in the top hole abovementioned is now removed and the mud allowed to run off to this level, when another charge is added; this is continued until the mercury has absorbed sufficient gold or silver to make it stiff, thus impeding the rotatory motion of the cross, when the tub is emptied of slime and the amalgam taken out, cleaned and dried, and squeezed through a calfskin bag and distilled; the distilled mercury always retaining a certain quantity of gold or silver, the retort broken and the silver taken out and melted. The amalgamation process as applied to silver had its primal demonstration on a large scale in Mexico, Chili, and Peru. Dr. Percy, in his Metallurgy of Gold and Silver, says that Bartolome Medina was generally admitted to be the inventor of the present "Patio process," having invented it in 1557 while a miner at Pachuca in Mexico; the authority for this statement being two documents, one, a report addressed to the Viceroy of Mexico, by Luis Berria de Montalvo, printed in the city of Mexico in 1643, and the other a memoir by Diaz de La Calle to Philip IV., printed in Madrid, 1646, both giving Medina the honour and credit of the invention. Dr. Percy then adds that this statement is not correct, as Don José Garces y Eguia, says that the first treatise on amalgamation as then conducted was that of Barba, published in Peru, 1639, the process being introduced into Peru by Don Pedro Fernandez de Velasco in 1571. Dr. Percy does not mention when the process was introduced into Mexico, but I have found by consulting the work before mentioned as in my possession, that the process was introduced into Mexico by the same person (Don Pedro de Velasco) five years before his introduction of it into Peru, namely, in 1566. Now, whether the Patio process was ever introduced into Mexico is a point that might be raised. The enormous amount of gold and silver that had been collected and stored by the Caciques that ruled the Aztecs, which was

found on the investiture of Mexico and Peru by the Spaniards, is a thing that is universally known and believed. Now as the Aztecs, or rather the Toltecs, whom the Aztecs subjected, were well advanced in the fine arts, is it too much to imagine that they were considerably advanced in metallurgical science, so far advanced as to enable them to have such a process? or how account for the enormous amount of metal that was in the country, as the present appearance and present existence of free metal in Mexico are not favorable to the theory that these metals were extracted by the Toltecs, and after them the Aztecs, from ore containing the metals in the free state? The objection may be made that for these ancient peoples to have had this process they must have mercury; to this the answer may be made that there are more deposits of mercurial ore in that country than is supposed, and these people would undoubtedly know how to reduce it, as at some of the localities it is found in the native or metallic state reduced by internal heat; but at the best this is merely a suggestion, and the existence of Vannocio Biringuccio's treatise which is identical in its principles with the Patio and published 26 years before the said introduction into America of the process is rather against it, and rather leads to the conclusion that it was long before known in Europe. It is unnecessary for me to describe in extenso the Patio process or Gallero process, as it is called in some parts of Mexico, as it has been exhaustively treated of by many metallurgists, among others Alonzo Barba, in his work published in 1639, and during this century by such as Philips and Dr. Percy; indeed, the section of Dr. Percy's work devoted to this process is the most complete extant. I might be. allowed to add that there is an indiscriminate use made of the words Arrastra and Tahona by most authors in describing this process; arrastra is the name used when the motive power is given by mules harnessed to the arm, and tahona is used when the motive power is water-although when in Mexico three years ago I asked the name that was given to the arrastra which was in the Government mint at Guadalajara, and which was driven by steam, and was answered that it was an arrastra.

I might also say I noticed while in Mexico a thing which is not mentioned, at least I have failed to find it in any of the works at my command, and that was the use of men instead of horses in the Patio

process. These men that tread the ore are called "Repasedors,"

and received four reales (4), about fifty cents Canadian or two shillings one penny (2s 1d) British, for every six (6) cargas (equal to (1800) eighteen hundred pounds avoirdupois) of ore which they amalgamated. Their motions are peculiar and indescribable, and require to be seen to be understood; the body is held erect, the right hand grasping a staff, or if a staff is not used to steady, the arms are swung in unison

with the movements of the legs, the legs are raised without bending the knee at an angle from the body, the toes turned out in descending, the heel striking the lamo first, and as the heel touches it the other leg is raised, in this way he proceeds all over his little lamero until it is finished. But notwithstanding all that has been said, there is a loss of the metal contained in the ore as well as the mercury, which is an expensive item; there is no doubt that during last century, especially towards the end, it (the Patio Process) was at its zenith in Mexico as a metallurgical process, which is borne testimony to by a report about that time by one Jose Acosta, who said that in Potosi alone seven thousand (7,000) quintals of mercury were used annually in dressing the ore, not to mention the mercury recovered from the first washing; but it has gradually lost ground since until it has been replaced at innumerable mines by other processes. In Mexico the cauldron or cazo process is one that has been used with much success. Without giving a description of it, it might be said that the apparatus instead of being as now a vessel formed either of blocks of stone or wooden staves like those of a tub, the bottom being a slab of copper 21⁄2 inches in thickness, the metallic bottom retained the same as the head or bottom of a barrel being retained by a groove running round the interior of the vessel, the original cauldron, as invented by Alonzo Barba, was essentially "to be of copper pure, as any alloy present in the copper would involve the mercury taking it into solution; they must be in shape inverted cones and flat bottomed, the under part to have a rim of 6 or 8 inches high and half an inch broad, all beat of one piece; other plates of copper are fixed in the inside by copper nails, it must be water tight, the inside of the boiler to be lined with lime and ox-blood, the upper part surrounded by iron rings, to which is fixed a crossboard carrying at its centre a spindle with wings, which revolves, agitating the contents of the cauldron."

The cazo process or hot amalgamation was accidentally discovered by Alonzo Barba. When trying to fix mercury by boiling silver ore, mercury, and water, mixed in a copper dish, he found that he had a shorter method of amalgamation; he gradually improved on this and introduced it into practice in Peru, in which it was successful in its application to the treatment of chlorides, bromides and iodides of silver which are abundant in that country, and also the ores containing silver in the free state. It was introduced in the sixteenth century and has been in use ever since. There is no change in the process since it was invented, with the exception of the above mentioned replacement of the cauldron entirely made of copper for the one with merely a copper bottom; indeed it was averred by Barba that nothing but a cazo of solid copper would do, but the great corrosion of the copper and the consequent expense

led to the adoption of the present form; with the exception of the above mentioned change the process is identical as first practised

In 1588 Don Juan De Corduba, a Spaniard, applied to the court of Vienna proposing "to extract silver from its ore whether poor or rich by mercury, and in a short space of time." He made several experiments on a small scale on several kinds of ore which succeeded very well, but on attempting with (20) twenty quintals he failed, and one Lazarus Erker, who was employed to give in a report on the process, disapproved of the method and here it dropped. Baron Inigo Born imputed the failure to his ore not being calcined, his not using salt and the weather being cold. A writer of that period adds to an account of this failure that "Corduba could have remedied the last cause of failure, namely, the cold weather," and I believe he could. The Tintin processas practised in Chili was really a modification of the "streaming for gold" process, and though not generally known was invented by a Franciscan Friar; it was applicable only to ores containing free metal, the apparatus being a stone mortar nine (9") inches deep and 9′′ wide; the ore being ground along with mercury in it by an iron pestle; the metal contained in the overflow being caught and settled in tanks, afterwards to be treated by the Patio process. This was in use from the sixteenth century in Chili and Peru. The Trapiche and Maray were likewise a modification of the "streaming for gold" process, and some give Barba the credit of having invented them, although I believe he does not claim the honour. The Trapiche is the modern Chilian mill; both have been in use since the sixteenth century.

"The Tina System," or "Sistema de Cooper," as practised in Chili is really a modification of the old abandoned Norwegian process, which I before mentioned, and from about 1825 has been used very extensively and successfully, although only applicable to ores containing free metal. The machinery is greatly improved over the old Norwegian.

Stove amalgamation as practised in Mexico is merely a modification of the Patio, in which the regular process is interrupted in the middle, the ore being conveyed to an estufa or stove, where it is gently heated for two or three days when the Patio process is resumed.

During last century Baron Inigo Du Born succeeded, notwithstanding obstacles thrown in his way, in introducing his amalgamating process at Chemnitz, in Lower Hungary. The process consisted in first stamping the ore dry to a coarse sand (Du Born remarking that "wet stamping would bring on great loss of silver and expensive contrivances to prevent or recover it "). The battery consisted of three stamps to each mortar, the sole or bottom alone being cast iron, each stamp-head weighing

40 to 54 pounds. The stamping is proceeded with, the ore being damped from time to time to prevent loss by ejection; the ore is then passed through brass sieves, and that portion coarser than sand is returned to the stamps. It is then conveyed to a mill, the running stone of which is kept in a box and nothing but the admission funnel being left open. The mill stones were made of porphyry. The ore being ground fine enough was taken to the furnace to be roasted. The furnaces apparently were modified, double-hearthed reverbatories as far as I can gather from the description. When the furnace was at the proper temperature, about 30 quintals was spread evenly over the hearth and the required amount of salt and lime- the amount required being previously determined by assay was spread over, then the whole turned with crooks and rakes until thoroughly mixed; the process then proceeded as calcination in double-hearth roasting furnaces of to-day. If during the calcination the material clagged, grinding and sifting were again resorted to. The ore was then, if properly calcined, conveyed to the boilers or amalgamators constructed according to the "recommendation" of Alonzo Barba, the stirring apparatus being put in motion by the crank of a water wheel and a horizontal rack with cogs, which being properly fixed in a groove by cross-bars, slid backwards and forwards on brass rollers and casters, the cogs of the rack catching in the perpendicular trundle and spindle of the stirrers which turned round twice by a three and a half (3 ft.) foot motion of the sliding rack. The stirrers were circular segments corresponding with the sides and bottom of the boiler. The ore was mixed with sufficient water to make it fluid and the amount of mercury required being gauged from appearance; if the ore was light and voluminous more mercury was required than if it was heavy and compact, the presence of antimony or lead in the ore necessitating an excess of mercury to provide for the neutralizing effect of these metals on the mercury. The residuum or tailings were then washed in tubs provided with stirrers. The amalgam was then freed from excess of mercury by compressing small portions in the hand at a time, as the deerskin was considered too expensive a process. The distillation was then performed "per descensum" in iron pots; the under one standing up to the middle in cold running water, which passed under the hearth, the upper part appearing about two (2") inches above it. The amalgam made into balls and placed in an iron cullender fixed to an iron tripod was set in the bottom pot, covered on the inside with a coarse cloth. The upper pot was then inverted on the lower one and luted; fire then being put about it the mercury was sublimed and condensed in the bottom pot kept cool by the water; a strong red heat being kept up