97 



Casions tliey gaily console lliemselves with a 

 professional proverb^ that;, '" the mountains ne- 

 ver keep accounts." Nothing is more abhorrent 

 to them than frugality;, and whenever they find 

 one of their companions who has amassed a 

 sum of money by his economy^ ^hey leave no 

 means untried to strip him of it^, observing, 

 that avarice is a vice peculiarly degrading to the 

 character of a miner ; and so addicted are they 

 to ebriety, that those wlio on first joining- them 

 are remarkable for their abstemiousness^, are 

 soon led, from the influence of example^ to par- 

 ticipate in the general intemperance. From 

 these causes none of them acquire property., 

 and they generally die in tlie greatest poverty 

 and distress^, while the profits of their labour 

 are wholly absorbed by those who supply them 

 with provisions and liquor. 



Sect. XIII. Concretions, The last class of 

 the mineral kingdom, tiic concretions, offers 

 nothing very remarkable in Chili, Pumice 

 stone is so common in the interior of the Andes, 

 that it forms the substance of several mountains, 

 A species of it, of a light grey, is in much es- 

 timation with the inhabitants^ who use it for 

 filtering stones. Petrified wood has been dis- 

 covered in many places. I have seen pieces of 

 hewn timber, completely petrified^ dna: out of 

 a little hill near Valpnraiio, some of which 



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