artistic filigree-work in both gold and silver was made extensively. According to the accounts of the early Spanish chroniclers, the ornaments worn by Montezuma must have been equal in elegance to many of the crown-jewels of the imperial families of Europe. At the present day the traveler will not meet with any large specimens of silverware, excepting the exquisite silver service of Maximilian, which is on exhibition in the Museum at the national capital. The modern jewelers confine themselves principally to the manufacture of watches, chains, necklaces, brooches, pins, buttons and other articles for personal adornment. The filigree-work in silver is worn extensively, but that of gold is seldom used. Chapetas, or silver studs for hats, are made in large quantities. They are in the form of stirrups, revolvers, ropes, horse-heads, dull-heads, spurs and other figures. These chapetas are fastened on either side of the crown. Silver ornaments are sold at a low price, and they make handsome presents for tourists to purchase. CHAPTER XVIII MINES AND MINING Nature has richly endowed Mexico with resources well nigh countless, but in the bestowal of mineral resources she has been most lavish. Beneath the surface of that volcanic ridge raised between two great bodies of water lie buried treasures incomparable, and although mining enterprises innumerable have for nearly 400 years exploited the metal-bearing regions and have extracted fabulous quantities of precious metals, by far the greater part is yet to be laid bare. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Humboldt estimated the mines in Mexico to number 3,000. At the end of the century hardly that many were being worked, but since the railroads have been extended and remote sections of the country brought into closer communication, they have greatly increased in number and in value. This increase is also due to another cause. During the economic crisis of 1886, due to the depreciation of silver, the Mexican Congress appointed a commission composed of distinguished men to study the question. The commission suggested as a remedy the absolute necessity of the production of something else than silver. It called attention to the undoubted fact that the Republic, possessed as it is of the most varied climates, was favorable to all kinds of cultivation, and in consequence it proposed a series of measures tending to the protection of agricultural and mechanical interests. The result of the studies and report of this commission has been the reformation of the mining legislation, en couragement to large companies, the working of coal, mercury, and iron mines, the revision of the customs tariff in a way favorable to agriculture and industries, and the conferring upon the executive of the power to accord advantages to the development of the cultivation of certain agricultural products. Another result of the work of this commission was the placing upon the free list a few years ago by the Mexican Congress of some eightysix articles used in connection with the mining and agricultural interests. MINES EXEMPTED FROM TAXES The law of June 7, 1887, exempted for 50 years from all federal, state, or municipal taxes (excepting the stamp tax), coal, iron, and quicksilver mines. Iron of Mexico origin in bars, ingots, rails, etc., enjoys the same privilege. All mines other than those mentioned are subject to but one tax, which cannot exceed 2 per cent of the value of the annual product. The free circulation of gold and silver in bars or coined, and in general of all the products of mines, can not be impeded by any tax whatever. Mercury is exempted from all tax. The tax on reduction works levied by states of the Federation can not exceed one-fifth of 1 per cent of value of the works. The law also prohibits the states from imposing any other tax whatever upon mines, their machinery, products, the capital invested in them, the declarations or denouncements, or any other acts necessary to the acquiring of a mine. Pursuant to this law the government entered into many contracts with companies for the exploration and development of the mineral wealth of many of the states. THE METALLIFEROUS BELT From the state of Sonora to that of Oaxaca, an extent of about 1,242 miles, running northwest and southeast, lies what is known as the metalliferous belt, because it is of extraordinary richness and it comprises the greater number of mining districts in the Republic, the most active centers being those of Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Pachuca. This belt includes one hundred and forty-three important mineral districts, situated in the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Hidalgo, Mexico, Michoacan, Guerrero, Morelos, Puebla, Vera Cruz, and Oaxaca. Mineral deposits also exist in the states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas, but they do not lie in the belt above mentioned and are mostly abandoned. Of the two great ranges into which the Sierra Madre Cordillera is divided, the westernmost greatly exceeds the eastern in metal-bearing lodes. In Chihuahua there are over one hundred rich mineral districts, with more than five hundred and seventyfive mines producing gold, copper, lead, mercury, salt, coal, and silver, generally accompanied by other metals from which may be obtained iron, zinc, antimony, arsenic, and other substances. GREAT MINING CENTERS In the district and near the city of Chihuahua is situated the celebrated Santa Eulalia mine, one of the oldest in the country, the products of which have left a monument in the very handsome parish church of San Francisco, erected in the city between the years 1717 and 1789 with the proceeds of a tax of one real (122 cents) on each half pound of silver got from the mine. The total sum thus secured is stated to be $800,000. Sonora is one of the richest cities as well as a most important mining center. It is noted for its high-class metals, among which are ores which are easily worked and so aid materially in smelting. There are also other minerals, such as asbestos, copperas, magnetic iron ore, muriate and carbonate of soda, and saltpeter. The native silver is found in these districts in considerable quantities and native iron has also been discovered in the Sierra Madre, Papagueria, and the vicinity of the Colorado River. Sinaloa has also more than one hundred mining districts, the mineral deposits being classified into six formations. Calciferous and quartz ore prevails with silver in a native state or combined with sulphur antimony, and arsenic, with more or less traces of gold. Veins of goldbearing quartz exist in some localities and deposits of iron ore, sulphite of lead, zinc, copper, and silica are to be found. The districts of Durango run mostly to silver, yet many other metals exist, such as tin and iron, in inexhaustible quantities in the Cerro del Mercado, which is an enormous mass of magnetic iron. This cerro, or hill, has been calculated to contain 60,000,000 cubic yards of iron ore, having a specific weight of 5,000,000,000 quintals (100 pounds). An analysis of this ore has given 66 per cent of pure metal. Jalisco is another silver-producing region, and furnishes also copper and lead ores and coal. A GREAT SILVER STATE Zacatecas is the great silver-producing state. It is estimated that in the last three centuries its many mines, which were first worked by the Spaniards in 1540, but which had previously been worked in a rude way by the Indians have yielded over a thousand million of dollars. In 1910 there were were over twenty thousand miners employed in the mines clustered around the city of Zacatecas. Guanajuato is another far-famed silver-producing state, and has been and still is the center of great exploitation. The district bearing the name of the state was discovered in 1548, and has been worked almost continuously ever since that date, the output of its mines |