The mining laws are simple and practical. Boards are established in every mining community who look after the mining interests. Any one discovering a claim can “denounce” it before this board and he is protected. Foreigners have the same rights as citizens in “denouncing” a claim. A mining claim is called a “_pertenencia_” and is one hundred metres square thus consisting of ten thousand square metres. The surface ground must be settled for with the owner. A tax of ten dollars must be paid annually to protect the claim from forfeiture. More than twelve thousand claims are now on record as shown by government statistics. The government only claims a one-twenty-fifth instead of the royal one-fifth exacted by Spain. The number of men employed in the mines at the present time is about two hundred thousand. Wages are low and average about fifty cents for common labour and one dollar for native miners in Mexican money. However, in recent years wages at the mines have had a tendency to rise. Mexico’s annual production of silver amounts to from $30,000,000 to $35,000,000 in gold value and gives it first place. As the price of silver is advancing, the production will no doubt be further stimulated. It now occupies fifth place in the production of gold, being exceeded only by the Transvaal, Australia, United States and Russia. The production of Mexico in 1906 reached a value of $15,000,000. Many other minerals are found in Mexico. Perhaps the most valuable, next after gold and silver, is copper of which there are a number of rich deposits. In 1906, one hundred and thirty-five million pounds of copper were mined. When this is compared with a production of nine hundred and fifteen million pounds in the United States for the same period it is not a bad showing for Mexico. Iron is not generally distributed but there is a mountain of nearly ninety per cent. pure iron ore at Durango. Tradition says that the Indians first led the Spaniards to Durango by tales of a mountain of gold where the yellow metal sparkled on the surface. When they arrived at this mountain, now called Cerro del Mercado, they pointed to the outcroppings of pyrites which the ignorant natives thought—or pretended to think—were of the same metal that these strange white men had come across the unknown seas in search of. A little coal has been found but not in quantities sufficient for local consumption, so that considerable coal and coke are imported each year from England and the United States. Lead is found in large quantities, and most of the graphite used in the United States is imported from Mexico. The greatest development in recent years has been in the production of petroleum. Some of the most remarkable flowing wells in the world have been struck near Tampico. Great rivalry has resulted between the English and American interests, and the Mexicans have profited by it. Another profitable field has been found on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The total production for