58 



crystallized state as well as that of efflorescence in 

 the mines, and even isolated in different earths ; the 

 metallic substances which produce it being, under 

 different modifications, dispersed throughout the 

 country. 



Sect. IX. Bitumens. — The Andes, heated by 

 subterraneous fires, produce in many places white 

 and red naphtha, petroleum, asphaltes, and mineral 

 pitch of two kindsj the common, and another of a 

 bluish black, which when burnt exhales an agree- 

 able odour like amber. This bitumen, which I 

 believe to be condensed naphtha, I have named bit- 

 umen andinum, and it is perhaps only a variety of 

 the Persian mummy. It is not uncommon, and is 

 discovered in large quantities in those places that 

 produce it. Jet is very plentiful in the Araucanian 

 provinces ; and near the city of Conception, and in 

 various other parts of Chili, pit-coal is found in great 

 abundance.'* 



Considerable quantities of ambergris are thrown 

 up by the sea upon the Araucanian coast and the 

 islands of Chiloe. The Indians call it rñeyene (the 

 excrement of whales) and pretend that when it is 

 first thrown up it is black, that it next becomes 

 brown, and after a long exposure to the sun acquires 

 a grey colour. Pieces of yellow amber are occa- 

 sionally found upon the shores, which prove that 



* The mountains in the neighbourhood of the Puelches afford 

 mines of sulphur and of salt ; and in Talcaguano, Irequin, and 

 even in the. city of Conception, sereral good mines of coal have 

 been discovered at the depth of one or two feet from the suriace.-— 

 Frazier^s Voyage^ vol. i 



