256 A VISIT TO THE PROVINCES 



into some of the numberless dark pits beside the lode and startled, at intervals, by the explo- 

 sion and reverberation of blasts in dozens of mines scattered through the hill with no little 

 satisfaction I reached the shaft from which they were extracting ore. Why stay long amid half 

 naked men, toiling like so many Vulcans by torchlight in an unclean atmosphere, with huge 

 hammers and bars, when one can leisurely examine the metals and crystals and strata by 

 sunlight, and with the profile of the map before him? And so, after spending half an hour in 

 witnessing the mode of breaking out the ores, and in looking at the walls from which some of 

 the great wealth had been extracted and where some of the best crystals still remained, my 

 amateur curiosity was fully satisfied, and there was no desire to brave the difficulties of any less 

 accessible mine. 



As there were only slight symptoms of the macurka next morning, the magnetical and 

 other observations were commenced at once. Absolute knowledge of the meteorology was not 

 to be expected from the brief period appointed for our stay ; yet, as the changes observable 

 during even a few days, in a locality so entirely unknown, are not without interest, a series was 

 kept as regularly as other occupations would permit. These are given at length in Appendix 

 B. Here it is only necessary to state that the mean height of the barometer, deduced from 

 records at five equidistant periods between 9 A. M. and midnight, was 26.02 inches; the mean 

 temperature of the air 61. 2; and that of the wet-bulb thermometer 45. 3. The extreme 

 fluctuations were .105 inch in the pressure, and 14. 3 in the temperature of the atmosphere. 

 Its deprivation of moisture is very great ; and this, too, it must be remembered, was mid-winter, 

 when there is more humidity than at any other period. Such was its effect, that the instrument 

 boxes, which had withstood the summers of Santiago during two seasons, were nearly all 

 opened by shrinkage or splitting of the boards. As would be expected, the electrical tension is 

 high ; a comb passed through the hair, or the hand brushed rapidly over cloth, being accom- 

 panied by sparks and audible noise, more particularly noticeable at night. Clouds, they told 

 me, were most frequent in October, though rains, if any, occur only during the winter months; 

 and when, by good fortune, there are two showers, the entire surface of the ground in the valley 

 is covered with verdure and flowers to an extent known only in countries like this, where they 

 lie dormant through several successive seasons. Hence, for animals as well as man, all the 

 food must be brought from a distance, only a few goats being able to obtain partial subsistence 

 in crevices or rocks inaccessible to less sure-footed creatures. Abstinent as they are of water, 

 even they would perish but for the supply brought from wells at a distance of more than ten 

 miles for each cargo of which, consisting of sixteen gallons, the price is a dollar. This water, 

 however, is only drunk by animals; nor is there any drinkable by man nearer than the wells 

 on the other side of the Cuesta de Chanarcillo, and for whose sale a deposit is established mid- 

 way. To these wells asses may go, and return to the mines on the same day. 



On the night of July 6th the valley and the hill, to two thirds of its height below us, were 

 enveloped in clouds ; whilst over our heads the sky was almost blackly clear, the stars moving 

 apparently in mid-space. Next morning we perceived that there had been a snow-storm on the 

 Andes, which are distant, in a S.E. direction, 40 leagues by the travelled road. With such 

 evaporation and temperature, the climate is charming even at mid-summer ; and one needs only 

 to protect his eyes from reflected light, to brave the direct rays of the sun without discomfort. 

 But at such a period there is nothing to attract one out of doors ; and were it not for the eternal 

 booming of the blasts in its profound caverns, that come to the ear like discharges of heavy ord- 

 nance at a distance, the visitor at El Bolaco might readily imagine himself in the predicament of 

 the poor wood-hunter one day in May, 1832 alone on its desolate summit. Even at this brief 

 distance of time, there is some little difference in the accounts of the first discoverer of silver 

 here. The best authenticated version is given by Senor Vallejos, and is somewhat as follows: 



On the 18th of May, 1832, Juan G-odoi, sole master and owner of a donkey or two, was en- 

 ticed from his legitimate trade of wood-hunting to the more exciting occupation of Nimrod's dis- 

 ciples, by the sight of a browsing guanaco, and, with dogs in advance and lasso in hand, gave 



