The weekly sale of ores at the several mines, is called the rescata. One at the Serrano, I attended. The ore is placed on the ground, each miner’s work in a separate lot, and the buyers sample it before the sale. It is sold in the lump, by guess, not by weight, the buyer taking his chances on the amount. The auctioneer stands silent, under an umbrella, while the miners who have a small interest in the sales, over and above their wages, volubly shout the praises of the lot in turn. As each lot is put up, the buyers singly whisper their bids in the ear of the auctioneer, and when all have bid, he announces who bid the highest; the other bids are not named. The chances for collusion seem, to me, to be very great. Some lots brought as high as five hundred dollars, and the aggregate sales exceeded six thousand five hundred dollars, at this rescata. This ended our sight-seeing in Guanajuato. The silver mines of Northern Mexico, near the boundary of the United States, are supposed to be of great value, also, but their development has been retarded by the hostility of the Apache and Comanche Indians, who hold possession of portions of the territories. Mining operations, however, have been undertaken, of late, upon the Rio Grande, and also over the American line in Arizona territory, the products of which are already reaching the United States. Central America possesses no silver mines that are worked to much extent, but rich ores are known to exist in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. [Sidenote: THE REAL DEL MONTE.] A very rich mine in Mexico is the one known as the Pachuca, in the group of the Real del Monte, and it has been worked almost from the time of the conquest of the country by Cortes. The most successful operator was Pedro Terreras, a muleteer, who found a shaft something more than a hundred years ago. He made so much money from it that he gave the King of Spain two ships of war, and promised him, if he would visit the country, he should have the ground paved with silver, and should not be required to put his royal foot on the plebeian earth. The king did not come, but he made the enthusiastic Terreras a member of the nobility under the name of Count of Regla. The mines yield about four million dollars annually, and the Regla family is one of the richest in Mexico. The ore yields about a hundred dollars a ton, and the miners are carefully searched every time they come up from their work. They wear only the lightest possible garments, which are changed and shaken whenever the gangs are relieved.