260 CENTRAL CHILE [cHaP. xu. 
Swansea, to be smelted. Hence the mines have an aspect singu- 
larly quiet, as compared to those in England: here no smoke, 
furnaces, or great steam-engines, disturb the solitude of the sur- 
rounding mountains. 
The Chilian government, or rather the old Spanish law, 
encourages by every method the searching for mines. The 
discoverer may work a mine on any ground, by paying five 
shillings ; and before paying this he may try, even in the garden 
of another man, for twenty days. 
It is now well known that the Chilian method of mining is 
the cheapest. My host says that the two principal improvements 
introduced by foreigners have been, first, reducing by previous 
roasting the copper pyrites—which, being the common ore in 
Cornwall, the English miners were astounded on their arrival to 
find thrown away as useless: secondly, stamping and washing the 
scoriz from the old furnaces—by which process particles of 
metal are recovered in abundance. I have actually seen mules 
carrying to the coast, for transportation to England, a cargo of 
such cinders. But the first case is much the most curious. The 
Chilian miners were so convinced that copper pyrites contained 
not a particle of copper, that they laughed at the Englishmen 
for their ignorance, who laughed in turn, and bought their 
richest veins for a few dollars. It is very odd that, in a country 
where mining had been extensively carried on for many years, 
od simple a process as gently roasting the ore to expel the sul- 
phur previous to smelting it, had never been discovered. A few 
improvements have likewise been introduced in some of the simple 
machinery ; but even to the present day, water is removed from 
some mines by men carrying it up the shaft in leathern bags ! 
The labouring men work very hard. They have little time 
allowed for their meals, and during summer and winter they 
begin when it is light, and leave off at dark. They are paid one 
pound sterling a month, and their food is given them: this for 
breakfast consists of sixteen figs and two small loaves of bread ; 
for dinner, boiled beans ; for supper, broken roasted wheat grain. 
They scarcely ever taste meat ; as, with the twelve pounds per 
annum, they have to clothe themselves, and support their families. 
The miners who work in the mine itself have twenty-five shil- 
lings per month, and are allowed a little charqui. But these 
