OF ATACAMA AND COQUIMBO. 2", 5 



be struck with t In- fre<| uency of apertures in the bank* and hills on both sides of the range, their 

 numbers iiirn-aiinjr, h-.u.-v. r, on the southern side of the cuesta. They were usually in the 

 projecting shelves of n.cks u ho*.,, faces had been worn vertical for ten to twenty feet, were very 

 ilar. ami r\i< mled hcyowl my vision within the hill-sides. Many of them looked an though 

 worn l>\ the outward rushing of air. Can the explosive gas of earthquakes sometimes find exit 



through them? 



/.'/ Bolaco, the name of the principal hill in this silver district, more commonly called 

 "Chanardllo," which is the name of the chain, is remarked as soon as a bend in the road 

 permits it to be seen, from the contrast of its cream-colored or whitish-yellow surface with the 

 dusky hue of all the neighboring eminences. It is partially separated from the range to which 

 it helongs by a saddle or indentation perhaps 150 feet deep, and is quite steep on all sides, the 

 multitudes of roads which lead to its many mines ascending by zigzag lines. The portion 

 which contains nearly all the silver hitherto discovered here, may be a mile and a half in length 

 at the base, by a mile in breadth its longer line extending east and west. Where the road to 

 the mine " La Candelaria" begins the ascent, on the N. W. side, the valley is 3,294 feet above 

 the sea, and the mouth of the mine, on the very summit, 3,698 feet, or 900 feet lower than the 

 base of the same range only twelve miles off. I am thus particular in stating the precise locality 

 at which the first elevation was observed, because the ground in the valley next to the village of 

 Juan Godoi is much lower. At the same time it is proper to state that all these determinations 

 are in doubt 150 feet, owing to a change in the zero of the aneroid, occasioned by jolting so far 

 on horseback. 



Most uninviting is the aspect of the surface as one ascends. Patches of marly dolomite, for 

 all the world like scoriaB recently released from the action of fire, and a multitude of dark aper- 

 tures, each with its pile of darker rubbish before it, resembling the excavations of a huge ant-hill, 

 are all that vary the monotony of its color. They tell me verdure does have a brief existence 

 after Heaven pleases to grant a shower, but such boons are like fabled "visits of the angels;" 

 and as one had not occurred for a year or two, there was no vegetation, and the assertion might 

 very well have been doubted. Notwithstanding its absence, there is a beautiful prospect from 

 the summit, embracing, through an opening between two hills, the sea on one side, a part of 

 the Andes covered with snow in the opposite direction, a bright village at its foot, and the 

 commencement of a plain dotted with hills far as the eye can reach. The sky was beautifully 

 clear on the afternoon of our arrival, and we were permitted to see the sun as he sank beneath 

 the ocean, gorgeously gilded by partiug rays: nor was the view less lovely on another occasion, 

 when the plain beneath us was obscured by a sea of clouds, through which the hill-tops pro- 

 jected as islands from the midst of waters. To us the sky was perfectly serene and clear, the 

 early rays of the sun tinting the clouds most exquisitely. 



We were kindly welcomed at "La Candelaria," one of the mines of which my hospitable 

 host at Copiapo was the principal shareholder, and were soon ready to descend for a glimpse at 

 its buried treasures. As most of the shafts are very steep, in order to go down with least 

 inconvenience strangers ordinarily equip themselves in miners' costume a leathern apron, or 

 sort of petticoat, and hide sandals; but we selected "La Guia," which had been wrought more 

 horizontally, and where, without these adjuncts, though tolerably stiff from the effects of a fifty 

 miles' ride, quite reasonable progress could be made behind the torch-bearers who accompa- 

 nied us over its jagged paths. In an atmosphere redolent with the smoke of gunpowder and 

 the tallow torches of laborers, a novice wants all the assistance he can obtain from feet and hands 

 and back, in the tortuous and nearly vertical holes through which he descends. Nor has hie 

 suffering ended when he returns to the light and air of heaven. A stiffness of the muscles, 

 called by miners "macurka," usually follows next day, and even the slightest exertion of them is 

 painful. Descending, in some places, beside the blackest abysses climbing, in others, where 

 one would have supposed only a goat could find foothold winding, now in this direction, then 

 to one opposite warned every moment to lean to the left or to the right, to avoid the risk of falling 



