furnishes the main branch of their external comftette. frot 

 50 to 60,000 planks are annually sent to Lima. The wood 

 grows to a great size, and its grain is so even that it is cleft 

 with wedges into boards of any thickness, even better and 

 jftnoother than could be done by the saw. Neither Agueros 

 nor Falkner had ever seen the tree ; the latter supposed it, 

 from the description which he had heard, to be of the fir tribe. 

 If plants or seeds of this tree, he says, were brought over into 

 England, it is very probable they would thrive here, the climate 

 being as cold as in the country where it grows : and it is there 

 reckoned to be the most valuable timber they hdve, both for 

 its beauty and duration. The bark of the alerse makes ex- 

 cellent oakum for that part of a ship which is under water, 

 but must not be used when it would be exposed to the sun 

 and air. 



They export aho the wood of the luma for axle-trees and 

 poles of coaches, of the hazle for ship-building, and especially 

 for oars, and chests and boxes of cypress and of ciruelillo, 

 Ilams form a main article of export, pigs being the only ani- 

 mals which abound in this Archipelago, because they keep 

 themselves. Few sheep are kept, enough however to furnish 

 employment for the women with their wool. Tliey make tlie 

 poncho, two of which are a full year's work for a woman, 

 working as they do w ilhout a loom \ the warp is stretched 

 and fastened with pegs, and they then weave with their 

 fingers, and with this painful industry what they make is re- 

 markably fine, strong, and beautiful. They make also a 

 smaller kind of poncho called lorditlos, which are the ordinary 

 dress of the negroes at Lima ; blankets and rugs, which are 

 curiously virought in colours. Linen they weave in a loom. 



During their summer, when the vessels from Callao arrive, 

 San Carlos is like a fair. This is the only opportunity the Chi- 

 lotes have of supplying, themselves with any thing except 

 what they produce themselves, and tiieir only opportunity 

 also of drjiposing of their surplus produce. There is no cir- 



