1872.] Copper Mines of Chili. 165 
Sitze would answer, if slightly modified by the addition of 
endless chains to discharge the scimpings and concentrated 
stuff. All attempts at slime concentration have resulted 
unsatisfactorily. Krupp steel jackets are in general use for 
the rolls, and are admitted by all to be in every respect 
economical. A pair will remain in perfect working order 
for over a twelvemonth, neither pitting nor wearing unequally. 
The desmontes are enormous. ‘Those of the Piké are the 
largest and probably the poorest. ‘They originally yielded 
6 to 7 per cent, but having been picked over four times 
probably do not now contain over 4 per cent. Their size 
may be judged of by the fact that now in their fourth 
bouleversement they are completely overwhelming a good- 
sized village built on one of the shelves of the hill. 
The hands employed in this minerale in every capacity 
number about 4000. As all ages and sexes work, this 
represents a population of about 8000. Urmeneta employs 
about 600, and as many more work on his property as 
tributers. 
The rate of wages is for common labour 12 dols. a month, 
and rations worth 15 cents aday. Miners (native) 18 dols. a 
month, and rations of 15 cents a day. The same high rates 
approximately rule throughout all the mining regions of 
Chili. Cornishmen alone can be trusted with the timbering, 
and they are even better paid; so that it is evidently a 
mistake to suppose Chili owes her mining importance to 
cheapness of labour. 
A railroad 36 miles long, conne¢ts the mines with the coast 
at Tongoy. It runs along an almost level plain to Cerillos, 
at the base of the hill, where, if the shareholders had been 
wise, they would have made the terminus. Thence it 
ascends by grades as steep as 54°, and curves as sharp as 
187 feet radius, to the very mouths of the mines. 
About 7 miles in a north-easterly direction, following the 
road, lies the monster lode of Panulcillo, forming also the 
crest of a ridge, along whose summit it rises like a wall when 
looked at from the south. The Tomaya people say that 
Providence placed these great deposits almost side by side 
that the ores of the one might serve to flux those of the other, 
but human perversity and English stupidity interfered to 
frustrate the kind intention. 
The Panulcillo lode runs N. and S., and dips at first 
slightly to the W., and then perpendicularly. It is traceable, 
though barren, for over a mile to the S., and is visible as a 
distinct ridge a long way to the N.; but its productive 
portion is not very extensive. It has been opened—by an 
