246 A VISIT TO THE PROVINCES 



the mysteries of creation. Scattered over the surface of the hills here in isolated parcels, 

 there in broad patches ; sometimes in huge piles whose gross weight exceeds many hundred 

 tons, and at others in delicate strata that extend for miles parallel with though beneath them 

 there are untold millions of dead shells embracing multitudes of varieties. In some places the 

 aggregations are composed wholly of one genus, as though they eschewed other association, in 

 others they are of every species inextricably mixed ; here they are worn and broken into lime, 

 there they are perfect as though just extracted from the ocean ; and again, in other localities 

 there are strata embracing every kind, united by hard concrete or indurated sand, tough almost 

 as gneiss. In one stratum 200 feet above the water, and more than a mile from where the tide 

 now flows, there are more than fifty tons of small white clam-shells in one mass, nearly all of 

 them perfect and almost without the admixture of sand through their interstices. They are 

 buried beneath a stratum of sand about one foot thick, and look for all the world like the piles 

 of clean shells one finds in North America before the houses of oystermen. How did all these 

 ship-loads of the sea's product so get together, and how were they raised so many hundred feet 

 above the element from which they drew sustenance? The making of this world of ours has 

 been a wonderful process or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, is a wonderful process ; 

 for the changes still progressing in the upheaval of the broadside of this whole continent are 

 here almost daily perceptible. That all the land from the ocean to the city of Copiapo, and 

 probably farther into the interior to an elevation of 2,000 feet, was buried under the waters of 

 the Pacific within less than a thousand years, I have no more doubt than that my pen traces 

 these lines. If the shells, which exposure to the action of a tropical sun and night dews has 

 failed to decompose, are not sufficient proof, we may bring the testimony of their still thriving 

 descendants from the waters of the coast, and the still existing indigenous trees found in a valley 

 near the city where no water has flowed within the memory of man. 



But to return to Mr. Wheelwright and the purpose of his visit to a locality which had been the 

 scene of such gigantic changes, then only the residence of such pests. 



At that time the mining interests had just been enhanced by the discovery of incalculable 

 wealth in the silver veins at Tres Puntas, a chain of hills some sixty or seventy miles in a N.N.W. 

 direction from the city of Copiapo. Even to the city every ounce of food for man and beast 

 is conveyed from the southern provinces ; and their freight from the sea renders prices so 

 exorbitantly high, that California is as nothing in comparison. True, some little pasturage is 

 raised along the riband-like rivulet, and a few fruits and vegetables of native growth occasion- 

 ally gladden the palates of millionnaires ; but in the district surrounding the newly discovered 

 wealth, there is not a drop of running water or a blade of grass scarcely even a shadow in which 

 to obtain shelter from the heat of a midsummer sun reflected from sand. To render the new 

 mines workable that is, to bring the cost of labor and food to sums which would make them 

 profitable the charges for transportation must be reduced ; in short, carriage by animals, that 

 consume nearly everything they can carry in the journey forth and back, must be abolished. 

 Hence the need of a railroad, whose iron teams need but a bite of the coal which English ships 

 often bring as ballast when coming for loads of copper, and a sip of the water which the ocean could 

 be made to yield. There being no native fuel on the spot with which to smelt, and the value of 

 the ores near the sea being scarcely equal to the cost of extraction and transportation, up to that 

 period the multitudes of rich copper veins more than ten leagues from the sea were scarcely more 

 valuable than the rocks that enclosed them. A railroad would add millions to their wealth, and 

 Wheelwright was the only man who could carry through such an undertaking. He had previ- 

 ously pointed out its value to the miners. In themselves or each other there was too little confidence 

 for great public works or moneyed associations ; and as, by the introduction of steamships along 

 the coast to shorten the communication with the only market for the product of their mines, he 

 had proved himself to the Copiapinos their most valuable friend, he was selected as the man to 

 build the road. Some eleven gentlemen at once subscribed the million of dollars estimated as 

 the cost of its construction, giving Mr. W. ample authority in all respects, and offering him a 



