284 CENTRAL CHILE chap. 



finds a lump thus hidden, its full value is stopped out of the 

 wages of all the men ; who thus, without they all combine, are 

 obliged to keep watch over each other. 



When the ore is brought to the mill, it is ground into an 

 impalpable powder ; the process of washing removes all the 

 lighter particles, and amalgamation finally secures the gold- 

 dust. The washing, when described, sounds a very simple 

 process ; but it is beautiful to see how the exact adaptation of 

 the current of water to the specific gravity of the gold so 

 easily separates the powdered matrix from the metal. The 

 mud which passes from the mills is collected into pools, where 

 it subsides, and every now and then is cleared out, and thrown 

 into a common heap. A great deal of chemical action then 

 commences, salts of various kinds effloresce on the surface, and 

 the mass becomes hard. After having been left for a year or 

 two, and then rewashed, it yields gold ; and this process may 

 be repeated even six or seven times ; but the gold each time 

 becomes less in quantity, and the intervals required (as the 

 inhabitants say, to generate the metal) are longer. There can 

 be no doubt that the chemical action, already mentioned, each 

 time liberates fresh gold from some combination. The dis- 

 covery of a method to effect this before the first grinding, 

 would without doubt raise the value of gold-ores many fold. 

 It is curious to find how the minute particles of gold, being 

 scattered about and not corroding, at last accumulate in some 

 quantity. A short time since a few miners, being out of work, 

 obtained permission to scrape the ground round the house and 

 mill ; they washed the earth thus got together, and so pro- 

 cured thirty dollars worth of gold. This is an exact counter- 

 part of what takes place in nature. Mountains suffer degrada- 

 tion and wear away, and with them the metallic veins which 

 they contain. The hardest rock is w^orn into impalpable mud, 

 the ordinary metals oxidate, and both are removed ; but gold, 

 platina, and a few others are nearly indestructible, and from 

 their weight, sinking to the bottom, are left behind. After 

 whole mountains have passed through this grinding-mill, and 

 have been washed by the hand of nature, the residue becomes 

 metalliferous, and man finds it worth his while to complete the 

 task of separation. 



Bad as the above treatment of the miners appears, it is 



