Hermanos gold minings, with 20 crushing machines.
The French Uruguay gold mine company, the working of which is stopped
for the present, has spent in the region mentioned more than three
millions of dollars, and has established milldams in the rivers
Cunapiru and Corrales so as to employ, for the grinding, a powerful
hydraulic strength.
The working of the mines on a great scale is just beginning now
without interruption.
During the last two years over 72,000 tons of quartz have been
extracted and crushed, giving a result of over 420 kilog. of fine
gold.
Mines of lead and copper and marble quarries are now worked in the
departments of Minas and Maldonado.
The agate stone is exported as it is found in the Catalan hills,
department of Salto, and there exists in Montevideo an agent of the
house established in that department, where are sold the stones
worked out into art objects.
In La Paz, near Montevideo, there exist quarries of red and blue
granite, some beautiful pieces of which are employed as columns in
some important buildings.
Stone is abundant in the Republic. Everywhere in Cerro, La Paz,
Sauce, Colonia and other places they continually open new quarries
which permit a considerable exportation for the works undertaken in
Buenos Ayres and La Plata.
The Colonia quarries alone employ over two thousand workmen.
Vegetation.
The territory does not only count with its native trees the wood of
which is employed in the industries and the rural economy; but all
over its fertile soil do grow, reproducing themselves, and perfectly
accustomed to the climate, nearly all the trees of the other regions.
Among the native trees there are the _nandubay_, that has the
property of petrifying itself under the ground, the _urunday_, the
lapacho, the viraro, the coronilla, the espinillo, quebracho, tala,
araza, the carob-tree, the black laurel, the timbo, guaviyu, copal,
the white, red, brown and yellow willow, the mataojo, paraiso, the
wild acacia, the ceibo and many others, the wood of which may be
employed for making all kinds of casks and buildings, and also for
burning.
"The riches of the forests in this country," says Dr. Ordonana,
perpetual secretary to the Rural Association, "belong to two distinct
categories. The first one extends itself along the banks of the
rivers and rivulets of the interior of the Republic, and the other
is a consequence of the sediments, ground and sands brought down
by the rivers that form the Plate, which, stopped by the banks of
low Uruguay, give birth to plants like those described by clever
botanists as Azara and Bomplan, as belonging to the regions of the
Pilcomayo, Parana and Paraguay.
"The trees are generally represented by a great many out of which no
wood can be made, and small shrubs that give fruits, used in other
times by the natives, gums and resins, stuffs used for weaving and
dyeing, and a great many twining plants, among which there are the
hisipo, of yellow flowers, and also the ilex-mate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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