276 CENTRAL CHILE 



block of wood, hollowed out, yet weighing three or four pounds. 

 The Guaso is perhaps more expert with the lazo than the 

 Gaucho ; but, from the nature of the country, he does not 

 know the use of the bolas. 



August 1 8///. — We descended the mountain, and passed 

 some beautiful little spots, with rivulets and fine trees. Having 

 slept at the same hacienda as before, we rode during the two 

 succeeding days up the valley, and passed through Ouillota, 

 which is more like a collection of nursery-gardens than a town. 

 The orchards were beautiful, presenting one mass of peach- 

 blossoms. I saw, also, in one or two places the date-palm ; 

 it is a most stately tree ; and I should think a group of them 

 in their native Asiatic or African deserts must be superb. We 

 passed likewise San Felipe, a pretty straggling town like 

 Ouillota. The valley in this part expands into one of those 

 great bays or plains, reaching to the foot of the Cordillera, 

 which have been mentioned as forming so curious a part of 

 the scenery of Chile. In the evening we reached the mines 

 of Jajuel, situated in a ravine at the flank of the great chain. 

 I stayed here five days. My host, the superintendent of the 

 mine, was a shrewd but rather ignorant Cornish miner. He 

 had married a Spanish woman, and did not mean to return 

 home ; but his admiration for the mines of Cornwall remained 

 unbounded. Amongst many other questions, he asked me, 

 " Now that George Rex is dead, how many more of the family 

 of Rexes are yet alive ? " This Rex certainly must be a 

 relation of the great author Finis, who wrote all books ! 



These mines are of copper, and the ore is all shipped to 

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

 singularly quiet, as compared to those in England : here no 

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

 the surrounding 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 

 is the cheapest. My host says that the two principal improve- 



