260 CENTRAL CHILE [chap. xii. 



Swansea, to be smelted. Hence the mines have an aspect singu- 

 larly quiet, as compared to those in England : here no smoke, 

 furnaces, or great steam-engines, disturb the solitude of the sur- 

 rounding mountains. 



The Chilian government, or rather the old Spanish law, 

 encourages by every method the searching for mines. The 

 discoverer may work a mine on any ground, by paying five 

 shillings ; and before paying this he may try, even in the garden 

 of another man, for twenty days. 



It is now well known that the Chilian method of mining u 

 ihe cheapest. My host says that the two principal improvements 

 introduced by foreigners have been, first, reducing by previous 

 roasting the copper pyrites — which, being the common ore in 

 Cornwall, the English miners were astounded on their arrival to 

 find thrown away as useless : secondly, stamping and washing the 

 scoriae from the old furnaces — by which process particles of 

 metal are recovered in abundance. I have actually seen mules 

 carrying to the coast, for transportation to England, a cargo of 

 such cinders. But the first case is much the most curious. The 

 Chilian miners were so convinced that copper pyrites contained 

 not a particle of copper, that they laughed at the Englishmen 

 for their ignorance, who laughed in turn, and bought their 

 richest veins for a few dollars. It is very odd that, in a country 

 where mining had been extensively carried on for many years, 

 so simple a process as gently roasting the ore to expel the sul- 

 phur previous to smelting it, had never been discovered. A few 

 improvements have likewise been introduced in some of the simple 

 machinery ; but even to the present day, water is removed from 

 some mines by men carrying it up the shaft in leathern bags ! 



The labouring men work very hard. They have little time 

 allowed for their meals, and during summer and winter they 

 begin when it is light, and leave off at dark. They are paid one 

 pound sterling a month, and their food is given them : this for 

 breakfast consists of sixteen figs and two small loaves of bread ; 

 for dinner, boiled beans ; for supper, broken roasted wheat grain. 

 They scarcely ever taste meat; as, with the twelve pounds per 

 annum, they have to clothe themselves, and support their families. 

 The miners who work in the mine itself have twenty-five shil- 

 lings per month, and are allowed a little charqui. But these 



