170 Copper Mines of Chil. (April, 
Lambert’s residence in Chili, and all his skill and the expen- 
diture of a couple of hundred thousand dollars failed to 
re-discover it. The Panteon is a huge quarry, from which 
from prehistoric times till to-day carbonated ores have 
been mined. ‘The ores were, before Mr. Lambert came into 
possession, smelted principally in a neighbouring valley. 
The slag heaps were virtually heaps of regulus, as the 
smelter of those days utilised only the bath of metallic 
copper, which resulted from a single fusion of the rich car- 
bonates, and was as ignorant of the mode of treating the 
rich slag as he was of calcining and smelting sulphuretted 
ores. ‘To this day not only do the old desmontes of the Pan- 
teon supply the furnaces of the Compania (Mr. Lambert’s 
Works, near Sirena) with carbonates, but the old Spanish 
slag heaps are being still overhauled. 
Mr. Lambert built the first reverberatory furnace in 
Chili, and first smelted sulphuretted ores, which previously 
had been thrown aside as unserviceable. The Farellon 
Mine also was the first mine worked by stopes. 
The dykes which, as before said, form the north walls of 
the productive portions of the lode, are themselves filled 
with little veins, which decrease in produce and size as they 
recede from the lode. 
Fourteen leagues north-of Sirena is the muinerale of 
Higuera, several lodes of yellow sulphuret in a clayey 
gangue, of very intermittent yield. The ores are smelted 
at the mines and on the coast at the port of Totoralillos. 
This is the last extensive minevale in the Province of 
Coquimbo. Soon after crossing the line of the Province of 
Atacama, and before reaching the river of Huasco, lies the: 
minerale of San Juan, consisting like most other minerales, of 
a group of copper lodes and a number of mines which have 
been worked from time immemorial, but have never taken 
rank with the great Chili mines. The most important 
mines are those now worked by Messrs. Harker and Dickson, 
at Lebrar. 
If the traveller crosses the valley of Huasco, at Vallenar, 
he enters the southern extension of the desert of Atacama, 
known as the plain of Algaroval. A range of hills separates 
this plain from the sea much as the coast range of Central 
Chili confines the great valley of San Fernando. In these 
hills at a distance of about six leagues in a straight line 
from the coast, has always been known to exist, but has 
been worked vigorously only within the last fifteen years, 
the great munerale of Carrizal, which sends more ore to 
market than even the hill of Tomaya. 
