Hector’s tomb is described as the “hollow grave.” This was the primitive cell, which became developed into an unarched dome. Of this, many examples are found in the tumuli near Kertch, some of them of a very large size, and, though different in construction, they afford a good illustrative parallel. In the structures just described, we find a developed architecture which seems to have been rich with metallic decoration. Here all resemblance to the simple cell of the hollow grave has been lost, and now the foot or two feet of earth, heaped on the top, is nearly all that is left to remind us of the original mound, from which this style of tomb had its origin.
XV.
MEXICO AND ITS MINES.
THE USES OF SILVER.—COIN AND ITS ABUNDANCE.—PUZZLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMISTS.—WONDERFUL SKILL OF THE SILVER-WORKERS.—THE SILVER PRODUCT.—THE MINES OF MEXICO.—THEIR EXTENT AND RICHNESS.—GUANAJUATO AND ITS MINES.—THE VETA MADRE.—VISIT TO THE SERRANO MINE.—UNDERGROUND PYROTECHNICS.—THE VETA GRANDE.—THE PACHUCA MINE.—AN OFFER TO THE KING—THE GROUND PAVED WITH SILVER.—SULPHUR MINERS.—ASCENT OF A MEXICAN MOUNTAIN.
One of the most important of the metals is the one known as silver. All the civilized nations use it for the manufacture of coin as a circulating medium, and the consumption of the metal for this purpose alone is very great. Political economists have busied themselves with the problem of the immense annual waste from the wearing away of gold and silver, but thus far they have met with no success. For large amounts, bank notes—either of the government or otherwise—are in use, and have many advantages over coin. But for small amounts, gold and silver have not been replaced, and there is little probability that they will be. Their jingling makes an agreeable sound, but unfortunately it reduces the weight of the coin, and wears away, particle after particle, which cannot be saved by any process yet invented.
Silver has long been used in the Arts, and its whiteness renders it particularly desirable for this purpose. Of late years, it has taken a very prominent place, especially in America, and the productions of the silver-workers border on the marvelous. At the Philadelphia Exhibition, the display of silver ware in the American section was such as to attract large crowds at all hours when the place was open to the public, and there were few visitors who did not confess themselves astonished at what they beheld. There was an endless variety of silver work, from very small articles up to very large ones. Down to a few years ago, the English and other people over the Atlantic had almost a monopoly of silver work, and were justly entitled to a claim for superiority. But at present, the American workmen are equal to any competition, and some of the ornamental pieces they have recently turned out cannot be surpassed anywhere else in the world.
The impetus given to this branch of Art is due, to some extent, to the abundance of silver in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, and the desire to make as much use of it as possible. Some have feared that the opening of so many silver mines would cheapen the metal, and cause a great shrinkage in the value of that now on hand, but up to the present, no such result has been reached. Silver has taken the place of gold, for many uses, and if matters go on in the future, as they have gone in the past, the demand will long continue to equal the supply.
One of the foremost silver-producing countries in the world is Mexico, and its fame extends a long distance into the past. The metal was known to the ancient Aztecs, and was worked by them, with exquisite skill, into numerous ornamental and useful articles, but among the vast mineral treasures of Montezuma, the quantity of silver was small compared with that of gold, and gave little promise of the argentiferous mines of his territories.