132 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



TO MRS. LOUIS AGASSIZ 



Pisagua, Jan. 19, 1875. 



My dear Mother : — 



I left Valparaiso as I intended by the Columbia and 

 arrived the following day at my first stopping place, 

 Coquimbo. I went there to see the great smelting estab- 

 lishment of our principal rival in copper, and it certainly 

 is admirably arranged and carried on, on the most ex- 

 tensive scale. One of the partners is the owner of the 

 largest copper mines of Chile ; the other owns immense 

 coal mines near Lebu. So that between the two they 

 make an excellent combination, bringing the coal up 

 here in their own steamers and taking down copper ore 

 for other people from the mines of the district. The 

 head man of the establishment at Guayacan is a Scotch- 

 man, extremely well educated and a great friend of the 

 United States, so we got along very well ; he is also an 

 excellent botanist and quite an amateur of fossils. He 

 showed me some very extensive beds of fossils, and I 

 hope that on my return from the mines I shall, while 

 waiting for the steamer, be able to do something. I wish 

 the Hassler had put in at some of these Chile ports; 

 the geology is most interesting, and I have no doubt 

 father would have enjoyed his study of them very much, 

 and then there were so many hands to collect that very 

 fine collections of fossils could have been sent home ; of 

 course with me, having no means of transport at hand 

 and being alone, I should waste too much time did I at- 

 tempt to make extensive collections. I am obliged to be 

 satisfied with notes and looking at things, for one man 

 cannot do everything. 



The railroad from Coquimbo to Ovalle, which is about 



