LAKE TITICACA 135 



yet they are cheerful, carry immense loads on their heads 

 up frightful ways under-ground, get but $15 to $18 a 

 month and never see any better food than black bread, 

 figs and a few beans, and occasionally a little fat for 

 cooking; add to this that they have little or no water, 

 and that fuel is worth its weight in gold, and you have 

 a dim idea of the condition of the miners here. I don't 

 wonder the owners make money, yet they would make 

 infinitely more had they machinery; but I presume that 

 as long as they can get such willing hands they will 

 keep up their old ways. 



The mines here at Tamaya are most picturesquely sit- 

 uated, perched along the steep slope of a high hill about 

 3000 feet high, above the surrounding plain, and so 

 steep that the houses, shops, etc., are placed one above 

 the other in regular terraces, which look as if they would 

 all scale off ; and as for the paths connecting them, ex- 

 cept the main road which has been built with great care, 

 they are worse than the worst Swiss passes, and they 

 think nothing of them, travelling over them by day or 

 night, as I experienced to my horror on the expedition 

 I made round the mountain. We got belated, and it 

 was pitch dark while we were up in the clouds trying 

 to get down, which we however did safely, much to my 

 astonishment. This place was a mine of wealth, but is 

 now nearly worked out and cannot last much longer ; 

 like many other mines in Chile, their future is bad for 

 many of them till better times come again. The view 

 you have of the mountains (of the main Cordilleras) 

 from the top of Tamaya is fine indeed, and if the hill- 

 sides could only be covered with verdure, it would be 

 a magnificent panorama, but as you get it, its aridity 

 and barrenness is not pleasant and spoils the whole effect. 



