ORIGIN AND OPERATIONS 



Three localities there from which to select were offered me by government, viz : a part of the 

 plain just without the southern suburbs ; Cerro Blanco, a granitic knoll some 400 feet high, 

 within the northern boundary ; and Santa Lucia, a small mass of porphyry, in the eastern 

 quarter of the city. The first is half submerged during the rainy season, and consequently, 

 at such times, is almost inaccessible by pedestrians. It was without suitable accommodations 

 near enough for our party. The second also would have rendered the erection of a dwelling 

 indispensable. 



Above the castles that occupy artificial terraces half way up its northern and southern slopes, 

 Santa Lucia was but a pile of rugged rocks. But as government proposed to construct a suit 

 able path to the vicinity of the summit, to level as much space there as might be required, and 

 to furnish a room in the castle, should it be needed, serious obstacles to its selection were re 

 moved, and their liberal propositions respecting it were accepted. It was not until months 

 afterwards, and when too late when the noises and dust of the streets became serious annoy 

 ances that it was ascertained how much better positions there are in Yungai the western 

 suburb. But, even then, one fact reconciled me to Santa Lucia. There, when bad weather pre 

 vented observations, as the assistants were surrounded by the best society,, interludes of social 

 visiting probably prevented the discontent which would have generated under arduous work 

 in the isolation of Yungai. 



On the very day that every preliminary had been finally arranged with the government, 

 information came that the &quot;Louis Philippe&quot; had safely arrived at Valparaiso. Kepairing there 

 at once, within three days the observatories and instruments, packed in and on six of the huge 

 ox-carts of the country, were on their way to Santiago. The distance from Valparaiso by the 

 road is eighty-four miles ; and as there are two ranges of mountains to cross, a journey in the 

 summer ordinarily occupies loaded carts five days ; so that it was the 9th of November when our 

 train halted at the foot of Santa Lucia. The chronometers, barometers, and other delicate in 

 struments, were packed on springs before leaving the United States, but, for greater security, 

 they were suspended from the roof of one cart, with controlling cords at the bottom of each box, 

 to prevent too great lateral motion. Having witnessed their departure, under charge of a care 

 ful capataz* for the purpose of estimating the probable security of this mode of conveyance, by 

 inspection of the train on the road, Lieut. MacRae and myself remained a day behind, and we 

 were the last to proceed to the scene of our future labors. 



Santa Lucia is a solid mass of rock. Its horizontal projection is an oval, some 1,300 feet long 

 from N.N.E. to S.S.W., and 500 feet in its greatest transverse diameter. Its highest pinnacles, 

 200 feet above the city, as well as many others, are columnar, and, at a little distance, closely 

 resemble basalt. Some of them are vertical a few are horizontal ; most of them, as do also its 

 strata, stand at every inclination towards the west, but not one of them dips to the east. The 

 slope is tolerably regular from the summit to the north and south extremes, though that of the 

 southern portion is the most abrupt and broken. Partially covered with decomposed rock and 

 scanty vegetable mould, its eastern face has an inclination not differing greatly from 45. The 

 western is precipitous a bare wall of nearly black porphyry, with occasional injected veins of 

 quartz. This side forms the great quarry from which the city is supplied. On its northern 

 ridge, houses have been built as far up as the base of a castle, to which a tolerably good wind 

 ing road has been formed on artificial terraces cut in the eastern slope ; but above the castle, 

 that is, for two thirds of the whole height, the rocks rise vertically for nearly twenty feet, and 

 further ascent towards the summit was (then) only to be accomplished by clambering from point 

 to point. The most appropriate places we could obtain were just below the summit, on the 

 same ridge, and a large number of men were at once set to work to level them. This was no 

 inconsiderable undertaking. Surrounded, as is the hill, by many of the best dwellings of the 

 capital, blasting is prohibited, and the process of breaking down rocks by heating and pouring 

 water on their hot surfaces is a very slow one. The intervention of feast days, when labor is 

 * The person in charge of a train of carts, mules, or the vehicle in which one travels, is so called. 



