We got several obsidian maces or lance-heads--one about ten inches long--which were taper from base to point, and covered with taper flutings; and there are other things which present great difficulties.

I have heard on good authority, that somewhere in Peru, the Indians still have a way of working obsidian by laying a bone wedge on the surface of a piece, and tapping it till the stone cracks.

Such a process may have been used in Mexico.
We may see in museums beautiful little articles made in this intractable material, such as the mirrors and masks I have mentioned, and even rings and cups.

But, as I have said, these are mere lapidaries' work.
The situation of the mines was picturesque; grand hills of porphyritic rock, and pine-forest everywhere.

Not far off is the broad track of a hurricane, which had walked through it for miles, knocking the great trees down like ninepins, and leaving them to rot there.