Letters to the Editor What’s an arrastre?

With reference to the Odds ‘n’ Sods story by A. E. Alpine in your issue of Dec 28: the ore-grinding device he came across is called an arrastre. It is sometimes spelt with an “a” at the end instead of an “e.” You can find it in Funk and Wagnell’s dictionary.

Arrastres, which were well known in the west, probably originated with the Aztecs, or their descendents, in Mexico because the Spanish were looters rather than miners. Walter Guppy Tofino, B.C.