ve been worked with little intermission for over three
hundred years, and are considered to be inexhaustible. "There is a
native laborer," said an intelligent superintendent to us, "who is over
seventy years old," pointing out a hale and hearty Indian. "He entered
the mines at about ten years of age, so he has seen sixty years of
mining life, and he may be good for ten years more." These men
constantly climb the steep ladders, bearing heavy loads of ore upon
their backs, for which hard labor they are paid about thirty-five or
forty cents a day. The most productive districts, as relates to mineral
products, especially of silver, lie in the northern part of the
republic, but metalliferous deposits are found in every state of the
confederation.

There are a number of important edifices in the city, among which is the
municipal palace, the cathedral, and the mint. The courtyard of the
first-named forms a lovely picture, with its garden of fragrant flowers,
tropical trees, and delicate columns supporting a veranda half hidden
with creeping vines. Both the interior and exterior of the cathedral are
extremely interesting and worthy of careful study, though one cannot but
remember how much of the wages of the poor populace has been cunningly
diverted from their family support to supply this useless ornamentation.
For this object indulgences are sold to the rich, and the poor peons are
made to believe their future salvation depends upon their liberal
contributions to support empty forms and extravagance. In his "Through
the Heart of Mexico," lately published, Rev. J. N. McCarty, D. D., says:
"If ever any people on earth were stripped of their clothing and starved
to array the priesthood in rich and gaudy apparel, and to furnish them
the fat of the land, these poor Mexicans are the people. Where the
churches are the richest and most numerous, as a rule the people are the
poorest. Their earnings have gone to the church, leaving them only rags,
huts, and the cheapest and coarsest of food."

An ancient stone aqueduct supplies the town with excellent water, but it
is distributed to consumers by men who make a regular business of this
service, and who form picturesque objects with their large earthen jars
strapped across their foreheads, one behind and one in front to balance
each other. We are struck with the aspect of barrenness caused by the
absence of vegetation. The nature of the soil is such as not to afford
sustenance to trees