CHILI. 195 



into several branches, and these again into others, from fifteen to 

 twenty yards in length. 



The greatest extent of any one gallery is about thirty feet. The 

 mountain has been penetrated horizontally to about four hundred feet, 

 in the direction of northeast to east-northeast, as the veins run, and 

 vertically to a depth of about one hundred and fifty feet. Each person 

 was provided with a tallow candle, stuck in the end of a split stick 

 six feet long, and caution was given not to lose sight of the guide, for 

 the galleries, although small, are so numerous, and communicate with 

 each other so frequently, that a person might easily be lost. 



The ladders, or rather posts, by which the descents are made, are 

 not a little dangerous. They are not all secured, so that it becomes 

 necessary for one person to hold the ladder whilst another descends, 

 and it causes no small uneasiness to see the foot of it resting on a 

 mere ledge. These shafts are at times crossed by a gallery, where 

 but a single post is laid over them, and the men pass over it by 

 steadying themselves against the side-wall. At the bottom of one of 

 the shafts, at about three hundred feet from the mouth of the mine, the 

 thermometer, after remaining for half an hour, stood at 52°, the air 

 outside being 56°. This may be considered a fair test of the tem- 

 perature. They report that they perceive no difference in the mine, in 

 winter and summer. 



There appears to be little system in working the mines, and little 

 knowledge of the structure of the rock or the courses of the veins. 

 Mr. Alderson mentioned that a few months previously, they had been 

 working for several weeks, extending a shaft, without meeting a 

 particle of ore to repay their labour, and they were just about giving 

 up the search, when the mayoral, or master-workman, declaring he 

 would have a last blow for luck, struck the rock with all his force. 

 This detached a large fragment, and to their surprise and delight, laid 

 open a vein which proved the largest and richest that had been worked 

 for many years. From this it would appear that the employment is 

 attended with much uncertainty ; and after exhausting one of these 

 treasure deposits, there are no means or signs known to them by which 

 they can ascertain the best direction to take to discover another. 



This mine is situated in claystone, the sedimentary rock of the 

 region, where it is intersected by a dike of compact clinkstone. The 

 dike is about six feet wide. The adjoining claystone has a dark 

 greenish brown colour, and resembles a wacke. It is so much fissured 

 that it is difficult to break off a small piece which will present a fresh 

 surface. The green carbonate of copper, and silicious carbonate of 



