OF ATACAMA AND COQUIMBO. 



207 



cost. Yet the cateadores are none the less busy, but continue to paaa days and weeks exam- 

 ining and denouncing tln-ir discover!. -s in c\|< < tatinn that a day will come when they may sell 

 or work to advantage. What privations this class of men undergo can only be estimated by one 

 who visits a country that offers no resources to sustain or shelter life north of latitude 30, and 

 who sees them take leave of their fellow-men. Their whole equipment is a mule or two loaded. 

 \vith water and provisions, and they are uncertain whether they will obtain other reward for 

 their t.-il than a scanty allowance of food from day to day. One of them told me he once found 

 himself near the base of the Andes in the desert of Atacama, without a drop of water for either 

 the animals or himself, when, after hunting nearly all day, he espied a green-looking spot high 

 in a ravine, surely indicating a supply of the longed-for element. Beaching it after several 

 hours of fatiguing travel, it proved as bitter as the waters of the sea of Sodom. Even his mules 

 would not drink of it; nor did he succeed in finding a potable supply until late next day, 

 when scarcely able to drag one foot after the other. His journey was also at midsummer, when 

 there are no clouds to screen one from the sun's scorching rays, and the reflection from the 

 sand and rocky hill-sides is really terrific. Think of passing weeks in such a country and 

 climate, with saddle-cloths or sand for a bed, a saddle for a pillow, the sky as a cover, and a 

 little charqui or cheese and hard bread, with water, the only food! 



So far it has been ascertained that the metallic distributions in northern Chile are almost 

 uniformly regular. Gold ores are found in the Andes ; silver veins in the chains of hills next 

 west ; and copper most abundantly in the elevations nearer to the coast. The following returns 

 were made to the Intendente for the year 1850: 



Mines discovered and claimed. 



In accordance with the Ordenanzas de Mineria, when a new mine is discovered, the finder 

 must designate its location before the proper tribunal ; specify the direction and inclination of 

 the vein ; excavate an aperture one and a half varas in diameter, by thirty varas deep, in the 

 line of the vein ; and then publish a notice of the same, stating the day and hour of his dis- 

 covery. Should no other person establish priority of discovery within a reasonable time, he is 

 entitled to a patent for a portion of ground embracing it, which shall be 200 varas long, with a 

 breadth varying from 200 varas when the vein is perpendicular, to 112^ varas if its inclination is 

 45. It is of no consequence whether the land on which the discovery is made be private property 

 or not the finder has the same rights ; and should it be an entirely new district, he is further 

 entitled to three contiguous lots, of which his vein may be embraced in the central one. Should 

 there be more than one vein, he may claim a fee-simple title to a lot embracing each of them. 

 The Ordenanza excludes foreigners from these privileges ; but custom has abrogated law, and 

 they now enjoy equal rights with natives. 



