INDIAN PORTERS OP THE MINES. 279 



above 0, a difference of 54° to which the miners were 

 exposed. 



The hardest part of the work was performed by the 

 native Indians, who were the beasts of burden of the 

 mines. They carried the metals out on their backs, in 

 loads of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred 

 and fifty pounds at a time, ascending and descending 

 thousands of steps, of an inclination of forty -five degrees, 

 where the air was from 71° to 73°. The mode of trans- 

 portation was in bags, under which the Indians placed a 

 woollen covering, for they were generally naked to the 

 middle, to save themselves from being bruised and 

 chafed. Humboldt met them in files of fifty or sixty ; 

 men of seventy years, and children of ten or twelve. 

 They threw their bodies forward in ascending, and rested 

 on staffs, which were generally not more than a foot in 

 length. They walked in a zig-zag direction, because 

 they had found from long experience that their respira- 

 tion was less impeded when they traversed obliquely the 

 currents of air which entered the pits from without. 

 Great care was taken in controlling the minerals trans- 

 ported by them. The proprietors of the mines knew, 

 within a few pounds, what went out daily. As the 

 Indians were paid for what they carried, their loads were 

 weighed before they left the mines. 



The Indians of Mexico bore a general resemblance to 

 those who inhabited the forests of North America, and 

 the interior of Peru and Brazil. They had the same 

 swarthy and copper colour, flat and smooth hair, small 

 beard, squat body, long eyes, with the corners directed 

 upwards towards the temples, prominent cheek bones, 

 thick lips, and an expression of gentleness in the mouth, 



