rtation.

In minerals it would seem as though the list of products was unequaled.
At present the silver mines are undoubtedly the greatest source of
wealth to the country, though under proper conditions the agricultural
capacity of the land would doubtless exceed all other interests in
pecuniary value, as indeed is the case in most other gold and silver
producing countries. The principal mineral products of Mexico are iron,
tin, cinnabar, silver, gold, alum, sulphur, and lead. In the state of
Durango, large masses of the best magnetic iron ore are found, which at
some future day will supply the material for a great and useful
industry. Other iron mines exist, and some have been utilized to a
limited extent. Coal is found in abundance, notably in the states of
Oaxaca, Sonora, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila. These coal measures are
particularly valuable in a country many parts of which are treeless and
without economical fuel. The total coinage of silver ore in the mints of
Mexico to this date, we were intelligently informed, amount to the
enormous aggregate of three thousand millions of dollars, to which may
be added, in arriving at the total product of the mines, the amount
exported in bars and the total value consumed in manufactures. This last
item amounts to a much larger figure than one who has not given the
subject careful thought would be prepared to admit.

Mexico can hardly be spoken of as a manufacturing country, in the usual
acceptation of the term, though the Spaniards found that cotton cloth
had been made here long before their advent. It is also a fact that such
domestic goods as the masses of her population absolutely require she
produces within her own limits by native industry, such as cotton cloth,
blankets, woollen cloth, cotton shawls, leather goods, saddlery, boots,
shoes, hats, and other articles of personal wear. There are over twenty
large woollen mills in the country, several for the production of
carpeting, and many cotton mills, the product of the latter being almost
wholly the unbleached article, which is universally worn by the masses.
The cotton mills are many of them large, and worthy of special
commendation for the healthful and beneficent system adopted in them, as
well as for the excellence of their output. The number of factories of
all sorts in the country is estimated at about one hundred. There is
nearly enough sugar produced on the plantations to satisfy the home
demand, an industry whic