75 



with water sufficient to dilute it. In this siti^ation, 

 the silver amalgamated with the mercury, from its 

 weight sinks to the bottom, while the lighter hetero- 

 geneous particles are drawn off with the water 

 through a hole in the trough into a vessel placed to 

 receive it. This amalgam, after having been repeat- 

 edly washed to cleanse it from all foreign substances, 

 is put into a linnen bag, and the mercury, which has 

 not become incorporated with the silver, expressed 

 from it. In this state of paste the amalgam receives 

 any shape, but it is usually formed with moulds into 

 small cylindrical tubes. The last process is that of 

 separating the mercury from the silver ; this is done, 

 by means of evaporation, in a receiver which is filled 

 with water and closely fitted with a head. The small 

 quantity of lead or other metal that may remain after 

 this process can only be detached by melting it. 



Gold of all the metals is that which is most abun- 

 dant in Chili, and it may be said that there is not a 

 mountain or hill but contains it in a greater or less 

 degree ; it is found also in the sands of the plains, 

 but more especially in those washed down by the 

 brooks and rivers*. Several French and English 

 authors affirm that the gold of Chili is the purest 

 and most valuable of any ; and it is true that its gene- 



* A person, on opening a water course to an estate in the plain 

 of Huilquilemii, discovered, with much surprise, a vein of gold 

 dust, which produced more than fifty thousand dollars without 

 the least labour. The same good fortune occurred to another in 

 ploughing a piece of land for grain. These instances are not unvL- 

 sual ; and naturalists have given the name of mpvJas to these 

 kind of casual mines which are always of small extent. 



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