OF ATACAMA AND COQUIMBO. 

 The exports during the same period are subjoined: 



Coquimbo in the year 1850. 



270 



No returns of the mines and their people have heen made to the government, as from Atacama. 

 There is no Junta de Mineria to which one might refer for definite information ; and as every 

 one mines "on his own hook," it is not easy to elicit data from such suspicious natures. 

 Going from Coquimho to Valparaiso, I was in company with one of the most extensive copper 

 operators in all its branches residing in the province, and whose intelligence and frankness 

 were quite charming until the subject of copper mines and smelting were introduced. Had 

 he been a snail basking in the genial air of a summer morning, and rudely touched, he could 

 not have drawn within himself more suddenly ; nor did he cease to regard me with suspicion 

 during the remainder of our voyage together. Whether competition was feared, and, like other 

 rare instances one meets in the journey of life, he imagined himself wholly entitled to this 

 branch of industry, regarding with enmity all who obtained a part of his fancied right, I know 

 not, but am glad to say there were very "few of the same sort" about. This instance is 

 alluded to only because there was no one whose extensive engagements were so well qualified to 

 furnish the intelligence which every stranger would seek in this secluded part of the world. 



The entire region of country from latitude 29^ to 31 S., and from longitude 72 W. to 

 the ocean, is one vast labyrinth of metallic veins. Gold, silver, mercury, copper, bismuth, tin, 

 lead, arsenic, cobalt in short, almost the whole mining vocabulary might be summoned to 

 enumerate its varied products ; sometimes a simple metal, at others in specimens each of 

 which will combine half the range of the mineralogist. Such aggregations as the latter are 

 yielded by the mine of "el Altar," and perhaps by others unknown to me. Copper, however, 

 is the largest product of the Coquimbo mines, and the ores generally find their way to the 

 smelting establishments on the bay or at Herradura. Where the arborescent cactus (Cereus 

 quisco) is obtainable for fuel, some small amounts are reduced at the mines. Other portions 

 are sent for smelting to Tongoy, a bay some thirty miles south of Coquimbo, or are shipped to 

 one of the other establishments. Of those brought to Herradura, the average contains sixteen 

 per cent, of metal. The furnaces here belong to an English company, who have a special pri- 

 vilege from the government, and are managed with all the skill and economy that modern science 

 has brought to bear on metallurgy. Owning no mines, their ores are obtained from regular cus- 

 tomers, who keep them constantly supplied at prices agreed upon according to the ley, or pro- 

 portion of pure metal contained in the ore. If not already broken into bits of proper size for 

 the furnace, the first step, after the arrival of a troop of mules with ores, is the selection of sam- 

 ples for analysis. To this end the whole is broken into bits of less than a cubic inch. When 



