344 CENTRAL CHILE. 



each time becomes less in quantity, and the intei'- 

 vals required (as the inhabitants say, to generate 

 the metal) are longer. There can be no doubt that 

 the chemical action, already mentioned, each time 

 liberates fresh gold from some combination. The 

 discovery of a method to effect this before the first 

 gi'inding, would without doubt raise the value of 

 gold-ores many fold. It is curious to find how the 

 minute particles of gold, being scattered about and 

 not corroding, at last accumulate in some quantity. 

 A short time since a few miners, being out of work, 

 obtained permission to scrape the ground round the 

 house and mill : they washed the earth thus got 

 together, and so procured thirty dollars' worth of 

 gold. This is an exact counterpart of what takes 

 place in nature. Mountains suffer degradation and 

 wear away, and with them the inetallic veins which 

 they contain. The hardest rock is worn into im- 

 palpable mud, the ordinary metals oxidate, and 

 both are removed ; but gold, platina, and a few 

 others are nearly indestructible, and from their 

 weight, sinking to the bottom, are left behind. 

 After whole mountains have passed through this 

 grinding-mill, and have been washed by the hand 

 of nature, the residue becomes metalliferous, and 

 man finds it worth his while to complete the task 

 of separation. 



Bad as the above treatment of the miners ap- 

 pears, it is gladly accepted of by them ; for the 

 condition of the labouring agriculturists is much 

 worse. Their wages are lower, and they live al- 

 most exclusively on beans. This poverty must be 

 chiefly owing to the feudal-like system on which 

 the land is tilled : the landowner gives a small plot 

 of ground to the labourer for building on and cul- 

 tivating, and in return has his services (or those of 

 a proxy) for every day of his life, without any 



