134 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



all hollow, — four in a room: to be sure it is large and 

 each man has a bed, but it is not pleasant, with the 

 filthy habits of the Spaniards, to be any length of time 

 in the same place with one of them. They look better 

 dressed up to kill, and they never stop smoking ; even 

 in bed they indulge in a couple of night-caps and com- 

 mence the day with a cigarette instead of a bath. From 

 Ovalle it is about twenty miles to Tamaya, a hill which 

 produces about one-third of all the copper produced in 

 Chile. I wish we had the advantages for mining which 

 they have had and thrown away. The richness of this place 

 is something stupendous, and the bulk of it owned by 

 one man who was shrewd enough to see a little further 

 ahead than his neighbors. The drive from Ovalle to 

 Tamaya is over an old sea bottom cut into a deep valley 

 by a former river which is now a mere rivulet. You go 

 the twenty miles in about two hours, in a light open 

 carriage, with four horses abreast, and going full gallop 

 up hill and down. I got to Tamaya just at breakfast 

 time, and after that the Engineer took me in charge, 

 showed me what there was to be seen on the surface 

 and then passed me over to the Mining Captain, a very 

 intelligent German, who, thinking I was a greenhorn, 

 amused himself, as many Captains have done before, in 

 running me up and down the ladders. I very soon tired 

 him out at that game and he after that looked upon 

 me with great respect and I got from him all I wanted. 

 It is melancholy to see workmen in such a condition 

 as you find them here, living in huts the walls of which 

 are made of cobble stones and a few bunches of grass 

 thrown across the top at an angle form the roof, and in 

 this solitary room men, women, children, goats, and 

 donkeys all live. It is fortunate the climate is so fine, 



