340 NORTHERN CHILE. [chap. xvt. 



were relieved by four others, who had previously dashed on 

 ahead on horseback. Thus they proceeded, encouraging each 

 other by wild cries : altogether the scene formed a most strange 

 funeral. 



We continued travelling northward, in a zigzag line ; some- 

 times stopping a day to geologise. The country was so thinly 

 inhabited, and the track so obscure, that we often had difficulty 

 in finding our way. On the 12th I stayed at some mines. The 

 ore in this case was not considered particularly good, but from 

 being abundant it was supposed the mine would sell for about 

 thirty or forty thousand dollars (that is, 6000 or 8000 pounds 

 sterling) ; yet it had been bought by one of the English Associ- 

 ations for an ounce of gold (3/. Ss.). The ore is yellow pyrites, 

 which, as I have already remarked, before the arrival of the 

 English, was not supposed to contain a particle of copper. On 

 a scale of profits nearly as great as in the above instance, piles 

 of cinders, abounding with minute globules of metallic copper, 

 were purchased ; yet with these advantages, the mining associ- 

 ations, as is well known, contrived to lose immense sums of 

 money. The folly of the greater number of the commissioners 

 and shareholders amounted to infatuation ; — a thousand pounds 

 per annum given in some cases to entertain the Cliilian authori- 

 ties ; libraries of well-bound geological books : miners brought 

 out for particular metals, as tin, which are not found in Chile ; 

 contracts to supply the miners with milk, in parts where there 

 are no cows ; machinery, where it could not possibly be used ; and 

 a hundred similar arrangements, bore witness to our absurdity, 

 and to this day afford amusement to the natives. Yet there can 

 be no doubt, that the same capital well employed in these mines 

 would have yielded an immense return : a confidential man of 

 business, 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, 

 v/hich I picked out by hazard. It required considerable exertion 

 on my part, when standing directly over it, to lift it from the 

 ground. The load was considered under weight when found to 



