water contained in it cannot be ascertained, as there is not any perpendicular shaft. There are ruins of fortifications about the mines, to defend the workmen from the Apaches. From the steepness of this hill, a socabon might be driven far below the bottom of the works from a fine plain. According to the accounts I received from two old men, called Padilla and Arbayo, the mine must have produced very rich ores. The vein is half a yard in breadth; but this must be understood (and the observation applies generally to all the mines in Sonora Alta), to mean that part of the vein which produces metals that can be reduced by smelting; for the natives, neither understanding the process of amalgamation, nor being able to procure quicksilver, have left untouched fine broad veins of azogues, or ordinary ores, in most of the mines, as may be proved by making experiments on the rejected ores, thrown out on the surface, some of which produce from twelve to thirty marcs per monton.
The mine of Cobriza de San Felipe, eight leagues north of Babiacora, and three leagues from the town of Ituapaca, with the Haciendas and farms of San Felipe, Agua Caliente, and Los Chinos, in its neighbourhood, is said to have been abandoned when producing pure silver, which the miners cut out in small pieces, by means of large scissors, or shears. It was the property of two women, named Loretas, but known in Sonora by the name of Guadalaxareñas. The Apache Indians made such repeated and desperate attacks on this district, that they were obliged to abandon the mine, during which time some water got in, and a considerable fall from the hill above choked up the mouth. However, a man, by the name of Vicente Estrada, succeeded, a few years since, in clearing away this rubbish, and gained the galleries; but before he could procure means of draining off the water, another huge rock fell in, and again choked up the mouth of the shaft. In 1826, another man was making a similar attempt, but in consequence of a formal denunciation of the mine being made by Padre Escobosa, he was obliged to suspend his operations.
The mine of San Antonio, on the hill of Tacapuchi, is three leagues from Babiacora, to the south-west. It is a new mine.
