iMI.VES IN CHILE. 335 



relation of the great author Fiuis, 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 Span- 

 ish 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 improvements introduced by foreigners 

 have been, first, reducing by previous roasting the 

 copper pyrites, which, being the common ore in 

 Cornwall, the English miners were astounded, on 

 their arrival, to find thrown away as useless : sec- 

 ondly, stamping and washing the scoriae from the 

 old furnaces, by which process particles of metal 

 are recovered in abundance. I have actually seen 

 mules carrying to the coast, for transportation to 

 England, a cargo of such cinders. But the first 

 case is much the most curious. The Chilian miners 

 were so convinced that copper pyrites contained 

 not a particle of copper, that they laughed at the 

 Englishmen for their ignorance, who laughed in 

 turn, and bought their richest veins for a few dol- 

 lars. It is very odd that, in a country where mining 

 had been extensively cai'ried on for many years, so 

 simple a process as gently roasting the ore to expel 

 the sulphur previous to smelting it had never been 

 discovered. A few improvements have likewise 

 been introduced in some of the simple machinery ; 



