The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

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1893.] THE LOCOMOTIVE. 127
without a single desertion, these five thousand men scattered over the plains and the
niountiiiiis and cauie together again at the call of their leader, filled with the same un-
daunted enthusiasm which had sustained him all the way through, and preferring rather
to die for liberty than to live without it." Morelos was eventually csuitured by the Royal-
ists, and was executed on December 22, ISIS.
One of the most touching parts of Mr. Logan's address relates to the sufferings of
Guadalupe Victoria, one of the jjatriots Avho i)referred solitude and death to the pardon
extended to him by the Government. After his refusal of the pardon a price was set
on his head, and he was hunted from place to place. "Any village where he obtained
food was immediately destroyed; and it was declared to be certain death to know his
whereabouts and not give him up." He tied to the mountains, and lived alone in the
wilderness for five years, and "for thirty consecutive months he did not see a human
being nor taste bread." He lived upon roots, and was glad even to gnaw the bones of
dead beasts. His clothing was torn to rags. When found by his friends he was clad
only in the remnants of a cotton sheet, and had tasted no food for four days. This man
was afterwards the first president of the Mexican Republic.
Russian Platinum Production.
The available information as to the Russian platinum industry has been increased
by a visit made by Mr, George F. Kunz to the district, and described by him in the re-
cently published report of the mineral industries of the United States in the Eleventh
Census. The two deposits in the Ural mountains are the Goro-Blagodat or Isa region
in the basin of the river Isa, and th^ Nisjue Tagilsk or Demidof? district, on the Martin
river. The former is under government control, while the latter is worked by private
enterprise. In the latter field there wera three large washing plants and a fourth is being
erected. Besides these the peasants have many small workings for which they pay two-
thirds of tiie produce as a royalty. Tlie deposits are placers composed of serpentine
boulders mixed with chrome iron ore, the platinum-bearing sand forming a layer of 6
inches to 10 inches in thickness on the bed rock at a depth of 30 feet to 40 feet. The
sand is mined by driving levels from a shaft, and is only worked in the winter, when the
washing plants have to stand idle, as the water is all frozen. For washing the material
it is hauled out in cartloads of about 1,500 pounds and emptied into a revolving screen.
The small scuff is stirred up in water by two women, and the heavier materials settle in
riffles in the troughs. Both the tailings and the heavy sand are rewashed. In two shifts
of 12 hours — each shift, however, including four hours' rest — about 640 tons of sand
are washed, yielding 2.7 pounds of platinum in each machine. The average daily yield
of the whole of this district is about nine pounds, worth about £2 [$10] per ounce, and
the yearly production is about 1,620 pounds. No details of the cost of mining are avail-
able, but the cost of labor for washing in the three plants for the 180 days during which
the work could be done is about £7,000 [$35,000]. Wages are not extravagantly high,
as a driver gets 1.3 roubles a day for himself, horse and cart, and he has to haul 60 loads
daily. For each machine 40 drivers, besides 16 workinen at 70 kopeks each, and four
women at 40 kopeks each, are employed. American Manufacturer.