Chap. VI. MINES OF PUNO. 101 



March he took me to visit the abandoned manto, and his own 

 works at Cachi Vieja. 



About two miles south of Puno is the establishment built 

 by Mr. Begg, at the foot of the Laycaycota mountain, and 

 facing the lake. The buildings stand round a long court- 

 yard, containing four trees of the oliva silvestre, probably, as 

 the only trees in tlie countr}^, once carefully tended by the 

 former English residents. There is a steam-engine which 

 turns a large stone wheel, twelve feet in diameter, for grinding 

 the ores ; and the quicksilver was separated by the heat of 

 fires of llama-dung and tola,^ the only fuel to be had. In the 

 house there were ]5apered rooms, fire-grates, and English 

 conveniences, now all in ruins, and the rooms used as stables 

 for donkeys. At a short distance from Mr. Begg's ruined 

 house, and a little higher up the mountain, is the entrance to 

 the famous " Socabon de Vera Cruz " of the manto mine, com- 

 menced by the Marquis of Villa Rica, and finished by Mr. 

 Begg. The " socabon " penetrates into the mountain, in a 

 generally south-west direction, for a distance of a mile and a 

 quarter ; the first 900 yards having a depth of some feet of 

 water, wliich is dammed up at a little distance outside the 

 entrance. This part of the gallery is navigated by an iron 

 canoe about a foot and a half wide ; but the canal is so 

 narrow that the canoe frequently grates on both sides at 

 once against the rocks. The roof of the excavation, too, is 

 very low, and several times we actually had to crouch down 

 in the bottom of the canoe, to avoid knocking om- heads. 

 Thus we penetrated into the bowels of the earth by this 

 subterranean navigation, with an Indian holding a burning 

 torch in the bows. From the entrance, for about 300 yards, 

 the excavation traverses a mass of grey porphyry. In the 

 900 yards of navigation there are six locks ; and when the 



^ A small wliriib {Baccharis Incarum) often coverings ihc hills. 



