66 PORTILLO PASS. - ■ - 



ter huraed our steps more than was convenient 

 for geologizing. The house where we slept was 

 situated at the foot of a mountain, on the summit 

 of which are the mines of S. Pedro de Nolasko. 

 Sir F. Head marvels how mines have been dis- 

 covered in such extraordinary situations as the 

 bleak summit of the mountain of S. Pedro de No- 

 lasko. In the first place, metallic veins in this 

 country arc generally harder than the surrounding 

 strata : hence, during the gradual wear of the hills, 

 they project above the surface of the gi'ound. 

 Secondly, almost every labourer, especially in the 

 northern parts of Chile, understands something 

 about the appearance of ores. In the great mining 

 provinces of Coquimbo and Copiapo, firewood is 

 very scarce, and men search for it over every hill 

 and dale ; and by this means nearly all the richest 

 mines have there been discovered. Chanuncillo, 

 from which silver to the value of many hundred 

 thousand pounds has been raised in the course of 

 a few years, was discovered by a man who threw 

 a stone at his loaded donkey, and thinking that it 

 was very heavy, he picked it up, and found it full 

 of pure silver : the vein occurred at no great dis- 

 tance, standing up like a wedge of metal. The 

 miners, also, taking a crowbar with them, often 

 Avander on Sundays over the mountains. In this 

 south part of Chile, the men who drive cattle into 

 the Cordillera, and who frequent every ravine 

 where there is a little pasture, are the usual dis- 

 coverei's. 



20tk. — As we ascended the valley, the vegeta- 

 tion, with the exception of a few pretty alpine 

 flowers, became exceedingly scanty ; and of quad- 

 rupeds, birds, or insects, scarcely one could be 

 seen. The lofty mountains, their summits marked 

 with a few patches of snow, stood well separated 



