ls:;i.] MorNTATX SCKNKKV. 



never been discovered. A few improvements have likewise been 

 introduced in some of the simple machinery ; but even to the present 

 day, water is removed from some mines by men carrying it up the 

 shaft in leathern bags! 



The labouring men work very hard. They have little time 

 allowed for their meals, and during summer and winter they begin 

 when it is light, and leave off at dark. They are paid one pound 

 sterling a month, and their food is given them : this for breakfast 

 consists of sixteen figs and two small loaves of bread; for dinner, 

 boiled beans; for supper, broken roasted wheat grain. They 

 scarcely ever taste meat ; as, with the twelve pounds per annum, 

 they have to clothe themselves, and support their families. The 

 miners who work in the mine itself have twenty-five shillings per 

 month, and arc allowed a little charqui. But these men come down 

 from their bloak habitations only once in every fortnight or three 

 weeks. 



During my stay hero I thoroughly enjoyed scrambling about 

 these huge mountains. The geology, as might have been expected, 

 was very interesting. The shattered and baked rocks, traversed 

 by innumerable dykes of greenstone, showed what commotions had 

 formerly taken place. The scenery was much the same as that 

 near the Bell of Quillota dry barren mountains, dotted at inter- 

 vals by bushes with a scanty foliage. The cactuses, or rather 

 opuntias, were here very numerous. I measured one of a spherical 

 figure, which, including the spines, was six feet and four inches in 

 circumference. The height of the common cylindrical, branching 

 kind, is from twelve to fifteen feet, and the girth (with spines) of 

 the branches between three and four feet. 



A heavy fall of snow on the mountains prevented mo, during 

 the last two days, from making some interesting excursions. I 

 attempted to reach a lake which the inhabitants, from some un- 

 accountable reason, believe to be an arm of the sea. During a 

 very dry season, it was proposed to attempt cutting a channel 

 from it for the sake of the water, but the padre, after a consulta- 

 tion, declared it was too dangerous, as all Chile would be inundated, 

 if, as generally supposed, the lake was connected with the Pacific. 

 We ascended to a great height, but becoming involved in the snow* 

 drifts failed in reaching this wonderful lake, and had some diffi- 

 culty in returning. I thought we should have lost our horses ; for 

 there was no means of guessing how deep the drifts were, and the 



