THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 277 



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 improve- 

 ments introduced by foreigners have been, first, reducing by 

 previous roasting the copper pyrites which, being the com- 

 mon ore in Cornwall, the English miners were astounded on 

 their arrival to find thrown away as useless : secondly, stamp- 

 ing 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 con- 

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

 had been extensively carried on for many years, so simple a 

 process as gently roasting the ore to expel the sulphur pre- 

 vious to smelting it, had never been discovered. A few im- 

 provements 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 are allowed 

 a little charqui. But these men come down from their bleak 

 habitations only once in every fortnight or three weeks. 



During my stay here I thoroughly enjoyed scrambling 

 about these huge mountains. The geology, as might have 



