1834.J FLOATING ISLANDS. 2G5 



cattle to his secret rendezvous. Piiichcira was a capital horse- 

 man, and he made all around him equally good, for he invariably 

 shot any one who hesitated to follow him. It was against this 

 man, and other wandering Indian tribes, that Rosas waged the 

 war of extermination. 



September 13M. — AYe left the baths of Cauquenes, and rejoin- 

 ing the main road slept at the Eio Claro. From this place we 

 rode to the town of S. Fernando. Before arriving there, the last 

 land-locked basin had expanded into a great plain, which ex- 

 tended so far to the south, that the snowy summits of the more 

 distant Andes were seen as if above the horizon of the sea. S. 

 Fernando is forty leagues from Santiago ; and it was my farthest 

 point southward ; for we here turned at right angles towards the 

 coast. We slept at the gold-mines of Yaquil, which are worked 

 by Mr. Nixon, an American gentleman, to whose kindness I was 

 much indebted during the four days I stayed at his house. The 

 next morning v/e rode to the mines, which are situated at the 

 distance of some leagues, near the summit of a lofty hill. On 

 the way we had a glimpse of the lake Tagua-tagua, celebrated 

 for its floating islands, which have been described by M. Gay.* 

 They are composed of the stalks of various dead plants inter- 

 twined together, and on the surface of which other living ones 

 take root. Their form is generally circular, and their thickness 

 from four to six feet, of which the greater part is immejsed in 

 the water. As the wind blows, they pass from one side of the lake 

 to the other, and often carry cattle and horses as passengers. 



When we arrived at the mine, I was struck by the pale ap- 

 pearance of many of the men, and inquired from Mr. Nixon 

 respecting their condition. The mine is 450 feet deep, and each 

 man brings up about 200 pounds weight of stone. With this 

 load they have to climb up the alternate notches cut in the 

 trunks of trees, placed in a zigzag line up the shaft. Even beard- 

 less young men, eighteen and twenty years old, with little mus- 

 cular development of their bodies (they are quite naked excepting 

 drawers) ascend with this great load from nearly the same dei)th. 

 A strong man, who is not accustomed to this labour, perspires 



* Annales des Scieuces Naturelles, March, 1833. M. Gay, a zealous and 

 able naturalist, was then occupied in studying everj' branch of natural history 

 throughout the kingdom of Chile. 



