1834] FLOATING ISLANDS. 191 



at right angles towards the coast. We slept at the gold mines of 

 Yaquil, which are worked by Mr. Nixon, an American gentleman, to 

 whose kindness I was much indebted during the four days I stayed 

 at his house. The next morning we rode to the mines, which are 

 situated at the distance of some leagues, near the summit of a lofty 

 hill. On the way we had a glimpse of the lake Tagua-tagua, celebrated 

 for its floating islands, which have been described by M. Gay.* They 

 are composed of the stalks of various dead plants intertwined together, 

 and on the surface of which other living ones take root. Their form 

 is generally circular, and their thickness from four to six feet, of which 

 the greater part is immersed in the water. As the wind blows, they 

 pass from one side of the lake to the other, and often carry cattle and 

 horses as passengers. 



When we arrived at the mine, I was struck by the pale appearance 

 of many of the men, and inquired from Mr. Nixon respecting their 

 condition. The mine is 450 feet deep, and each man brings up about 

 200 pounds weight of stone. With this load they have to climb up 

 the alternate notches cut in the trunks of trees, placed in a zigzag line 

 up the shaft. Even beardless young men, eighteen and twenty years 

 old, with little muscular development of their bodies (they are quite 

 naked excepting drawers), ascend with this great load from nearly the 

 same depth. A strong man, who is not accustomed to this labour, 

 perspires most profusely, with merely carrying up his own body. 

 With this very severe labour, they live entirely on boiled beans and 

 bread. They would prefer having bread alone ; but their masters, 

 finding that they cannot work so hard upon this, treat them like horses, 

 and make them eat the beans. Their pay is here rather more than at 

 the mines of Jajuel, being from twenty-four to twenty-eight shillings per 

 month. They leave the mine only once in three weeks ; when they stay 

 with their families for two days. One of the rules in this mine sounds 

 very harsh, but answers pretty well for the master. The only method 

 of stealing gold is to secrete pieces of the ore, and take them out as 

 occasion may offer. Whenever the major-domo finds a lump thus 

 hidden, its full value is stopped out of the wages of all the men ; who 

 thus, without they all combine, are obliged to keep watch over each 

 other. 



When the ore is brought to the mill, it is ground into an impalpable 

 powder ; the process of washing removes all the lighter particles, and 

 amalgamation finally secures the gold dust. The washing, when de- 

 Bcribed, sounds a very simple process ; but it is beautiful to see how 

 the exact adaptation of the current of water to the specific gravity of 

 the gold, so easily separates the powdered matrix from the metal. 

 The mud which passes from the mills is collected into pools, where 

 it subsides, and every now and then is cleared out, and thrown into a 

 common heap. A great deal of chemical action then commences, salts 

 of various kinds effloresce on the surface, and the mass becomes hard. 



* "Annales des Sciences Naturelles," March, 1833. M. Gay, a zealous and 

 able naturalist, was then occupied in studying every branch of natural 

 history throughout the kingdom of Chile. 



