Scarciff/ of Fresh Water. — Copper-Smelting. 341 



important beverage has at j^i'^sent to be brought from 90 

 miles inland, so that a cask containing some 15 gallons costs 

 31 cents or Is. M. English. The charge for supplying water 

 alone to 90 or 100 workmen amounts to 40 dollars, or £8 8.s., 

 a week ! At the time I visited it, the people were negotiat- 

 ing for the erection of a steam distilling apparatus, for pro- 

 curing fresh water from the sea, at a less cost than was paid 

 previously. From Caldera, a locomotive line of rail leads 

 to the mining town of Copiapo, 71 miles inland, in the 

 vicinity of which are rich mines of silver and copper. This 

 enterprise has proved so remunerative, that, although its 

 construction cost 2,500,000 dollars (£525,000 or about £7400 

 a mile), the share-holders receive an annual dividend of 16 

 per cent. 



1 visited the copper-smelting kilns, which belong to an 

 English company, and produce annually from 1800 to 2000 

 tons of almost virgin copper (90 to 96 per cent.), in ingots 

 and pigs, as they are termed, an ingot weighing from 16 to 

 18 lbs avoirdupois. The ore, as at first found in the mines of 

 Copiapo, has barely 18 to 36 per cent, of copper, and has to 

 undergo six or seven smeltings before it becomes sufficiently 

 pure to be sold at a profit in the markets of Europe. The 

 smelting-furnace produces about seven tons of copper per diem, 

 at a consumption of 60 tons of coal,* which is imported from 



* Hitherto, the coal procured at Lota in the south of Chile has been neglected, in 

 consequence of the freight being so heavy that it is cheaper to import coals from 

 England and North America. 



