96 NORTHERN CHILE. 



a practical miner and assayer, would have been 

 all that was required. 



Captain Head has described the wonderful load 

 which the " Apires," truly beasts of burden, carry 

 up from the deepest mines. I confess I thought 

 the account exaggerated ; so that I was glad to 

 take an opportunity of weighing one of the loads, 

 which I picked out by hazard. It required con- 

 siderable exertion on my part, when standing di- 

 rectly over it, to lift it from the ground. The load 

 was considered under weight when found to be 

 197 pounds. The apire had carried this up eighty 

 perpendicular yards — part of the way by a steep 

 passage, but the greater part up notched poles, 

 placed in a zigzag line up the shaft. According 

 to the general regulation, the apire is not allowed 

 to halt for breath except the mine is six hundred 

 feet deep. The average load is considered as rath- 

 er more than 200 pounds ; and I have been as- 

 sured that one of 300 pounds (twenty-two stone 

 and a half), by way of a trial, has been brought up 

 from the deepest mine ! At this time the apires 

 were bringing up the usual load twelve times in 

 the day, that is, 2400 pounds from eighty yards 

 deep ; and they were employed in the intervals in 

 breaking and picking ore. 



These men, excepting from accidents, are 

 healthy, and appear cheerful. Their bodies are 

 not very muscular. They rarely eat meat once a 

 week, and never oftener, and then only the hard, 

 dry charqui. Although with a knowledge that the 

 labour was voluntary, it was nevertheless quite re- 

 volting to see the state in which they reached the 

 mouth of the mine : their bodies bent forward, 

 leaning with their arms on the steps, their legs 

 bowed, their muscles quivering, the perspiration 

 streaming from their faces over their breasts, their 



