Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-05-12

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FIG. 2-RUrNs on DAVIS HILL.
sand. 1t was reduced to a complete powder
by being beaten in coarse leathern bags. II
was then taken and mixed with water and
thrown into an orGsbrd, which is cross be-
tween coffee-mill and quartz crusher; in
short, it is four stones tied to revolving
mlll-bar drawn by the inevitable mule OF
Mexico.
This makes paste rich in granulated sill
yer which is mixed with salt and boiled in a
little pot as if they were making apple
butter, or putting up the preserves for a
family's winter use, instead of working one
of the richest veins of silver in a country
celebrated for its valuable silver mines.
This resulting mass is washed out in pan
like prospective miner washes for signs of
gold in the sand and gravel of mountain
stream, with the exception that quicksilver
is put in to form an amalgan with the now
liberated silver. This is pressed out with
the hand and the little ball Of amalgam, as
bright as silver itself, has the mercury
driven off by a furnace big enough to fry
the eggs for party of two, and the pure
silver ball, glistening like boar frost in the
morning sun, is beaten down to the size of
a big marble to prevent it, in its very friable
condition, from breaking to pieces. 1t is ex-
asperating in the extreme to see such dia-
bolical works Of man applied to the rich Of
ferings of nature. In my first two hundred
miles of travel passed half as many silver
prospects" that would pay well if a rail-
road ran within a days easy haul Of them,
that are now idle, and that will remain so
until Anglo-Saxon blood, muscle and ma
chinery get into these parts to change the
present sluggish course Of affairs.
The most exaggerated reports are the
mostlihely to come from the worst parts of
the country, for where man owns rich
mine he has dozen incentives for keeping
it quiet to where he has one in publishing it
to the world Nor does the Mexican Gov
eminent publish such an arrayof statistics
as we are accustomed to give every decade
on mining as well as other matters. AS a
consequence, the richest silver mines of the
world, as well as those of some of the other
precious metals, ar e hidden away in the
wilds of the nOrther part Of Mexico. and
the great reading world knows less about
them than they do Of many thousands of
other enterprises of not one-tenth the i'm
portance This would be almost impossible
in the United States. and hard to compre-
bend in that country, but as easy as the
proverbial rolling off log in Mexico.
My trip of over two hundred miles down
the eastern slope Of the Sierra Madre
mountains, from the boundary between the
two countries, coupled with the information
had gained en- route, showed me that I
could undoubtedly do better by attempting
to make my way through the great range
from the westward, SO the remainder of
this article details our change of base from
the State of Chihuahua to that of Sonora to
the westward, preparatory to piercing the
Sierra Madres at the most available line for
the best interests Of the expedition. There
was but very little out Of routine travel for
day or two, until we came to the third
crossing of the Cassas Grandes river, at a
point so near its mouth or whereit emptied
into Laguna GuZman, that we felt sure we
would have little trouble in crossing it, for
as l have already explained, most of the
civers of this country are the larger the
nearer they get to their heads. There had
been no rains to swell the streams, and our
surprise can therefore be imagined when
We reached the river to find it a raging tor
rent. 1t was over the backs of our small
est horses and over the tops of all the
wagon beds, SO the prospect was not very
for a crossing with our effects
in dry condition
A long experience in frontier field serv-
ice had taught me that it was seldom wise
to await the falling Of swollen river if it
could be crossed at all. and so we set to
work to get over the obstreperous stream.
The leads on the wagons were piled
high above the beds, and this made them
top heavy, the great empty beds acting like
so many boats as they dashed into the river,
very much to making the
whole thing unstable. One driver, Mexi-
can by the name of Ehaues, had the worst
time of it in a low,iight wagon drawn by two
small plnt0bronchos. The flood swept him
down stream under an oVerhanging clump
Of willows despite a rope tiedsto the tongue
Of the wagon and another behind held
firmly by a half dozen persons on the up
stream side. But be was as cool at the
head as at his feet, although he was knee
deep in the ice-water Of the river as he
stood upright in the wagon bed A mo-
nent's waiting to allow the horses to re-
gain their bewildered senses and Ctayes
swan them upstream TO the crossing, and
he men with whoop and yell dragged the
whole affair on shore, looking like drowned
ats tied 30 dripping cigar box We were
hree hours and quarter getting over the
liver, which was finished just atsnight fall,
,ut we felt as if we could have lynched the /
nan who wrote that MEXICO was vast
tract of country. We saw enough /
water that day 10 have supplied Bourbon /
county, Kentucky, for full century. A /
rood system of conserving the water sup |
'ly here would allow thirty Caucasains to |
i've of OF the soil 10 where one Mexican Is I
low found. FREDERICK SCHwATKA.