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JOURNEY. 



the neighbouring districts, the cattle were 

 obliged to be driven to the river at a consi- 

 derable and inconvenient distance. On my 

 telling him the process and method of boring 

 for water, he said, he was convinced that 

 boring apparatus, properly made and well 

 conducted, if sent out here, would be a most 

 profitable speculation, and amply repay, as 

 the landed proprietors would all be happy 

 to benefit their fields and cattle by this 

 means. 



On the morning of the 19th, I went, ac- 

 companied by the junior Alcalde, and several 

 fishermen, to the river Chinche, in which, I 

 was informed, pearls were to be obtained. 

 I had several hundred oysters and scallops 

 opened ; but found only two or three small, 

 bad-coloured, ill-shaped pearls. The oys- 

 ters were of a greenish hue on the outside 

 shell, the inside of a deep blue; the scal- 

 lops, outside brown, the inside of a fine 



