194 JOURNAL. 
pieces of wood, either with soga or twine, made from the hemp of 
the country, with the bark of a water tree not unlike the poplar, or 
with thongs. Some have only a thick wattled wall of myrtle, or 
broom ; others have the chinks in the wattling filled in with clay, 
and whitewashed either with lime,—which the natives knew how to 
prepare from beds of shells found in the country before the invasion 
of the Spaniards,—or with a kind of white ochre, which is very fine, 
and is found in pretty large beds in different parts of the country. 
The roofs are more solidly constructed, having usually over the 
supporting rafters a layer of branches plaistered with mud, and 
covered with the leaves of the Palma Tejera, or thatch palm, 
which abounds in the valleys of Chile. Broom, reeds, and a long 
fine grass, are also used for roofs. However poor the house, there is 
always a separate hut for cooking at a little distance. 
The better houses, mine for instance, have very solid walls, often 
four feet thick, of unburnt bricks of about sixteen inches long, ten 
wide, and four thick. These, like the mortar in which they are 
bedded, are formed of the common earth, which is all fit for the 
purpose in this neighbourhood. When a man wishes to build, he 
digs down a portion of the nearest hill, and waters the loose earth till 
it acquires the consistence of mortar; a number of peons, or country- 
men, then tread it to a proper smoothness and consistency ; after 
which a quantity of chopped straw is added, which is again trodden 
till it is equally distributed through the mass, which is of course 
more solid for the bricks. These bricks are formed in a wooden 
frame, and then placed in the shade to dry, after which they are 
exposed to the sun to harden. After the walls are built they are 
generally allowed to stand a short time to settle before the rafters 
are laid on, and indeed the roof is a formidable weight. A very 
thick layer of green boughs, leaves and all, is first fastened with 
twine upon the rafters, whose interstices are pretty closely filled up 
with canes ; a layer of mortar, or rather mud, of at least four inches 
thick, is spread above that ; and in that mud are bedded round tiles, 
whose ridge rows are cemented with lime-mortar, a thin coat of 
