£6 



MANTO SILVER MINES. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Manto silver mine — Trade — Shores of Lake Titicaca — Rush balsas— Animals- 

 Loftiest mountains — Aymara Indians — Mode of cultivation — Buttled fish- 

 Frontier of Peru — Rio Desaguedero — Rush bridge — Bolivian military and 

 custom-house — Southeast trade winds — Tiahuanaco ruins — Evaporation and 

 precipitation — Planting small potatoes— Difficulty among postillions — City of 

 La Paz — Population — Cinchona bark — Beni river and Madeira Plata — Transit 

 duty — Gold washings of Tipuani — Productions of Yungas — Dried mutton and 

 copper mines — Articles of the last constitution — A Bolivian lady's opinion of 

 North Americans — Illimani snow-peak — Church performances of the Aymaras — 

 Benenguela silver mines — Growth of cedar bushes. 



The silver mines near Puna, with the exception of one, are standing 

 idle. Manto, the principal mine, is situated two miles south of the 

 town. It has been worked for twenty years ; the vein ran nearly hori- 

 zontally west-southwest, rising a little as it passed through the mountain. 

 Water flowed out after the miner had gone in some distance, and a dam 

 was built at the mouth of the mine, which backed it up. Iron canal 

 boats navigated the stream, and brought out cargoes of rich silver ore ; 

 as the miner travelled on, he found the more use for his boat. The canal 

 was locked, and the water dammed up by the gates ; some distance 

 farther back; when a second and third gate were built, the stream be- 

 came smaller, and the vein rose much above the level of the entrance 

 to the head of navigation. Pushing on into the bowels of the Andes, 

 the miner built a railroad of iron from the canal to the head of the 

 mine, continuing to lengthen it after him. When the train came down 

 loaded with metal, it was embarked and floated out by boats with lights 

 burning at the bow and stern, as the canal is winding and narrow, with 

 just room for the boat to pass between the rocks. 



A steam-engine turns a large stone wheel of twelve feet diameter, 

 under which the ore was ground. It was washed by water from the 

 canal, and separated from its quicksilver by the heat of fires made from 

 the excrements of llamas, the only fuel known here. Meteorological 

 observations at each lock in Manto canal, show at No. 1 — air, 70°; 

 water, 60°. No. 2— air, 68°; water, 60°. No. 3 — air, 64°; water, 

 59°. The distance to the head of navigation is about half a mile, 

 though the workmen say more than a mile. An Englishman has been 

 engaged here of late years, and after spending much time with little 



