79 



iron only could be obtained from this pretended 

 gold-mine ; they continued picking up secretly 

 every bit of pyrites they saw sparkling in the 

 water. The more a country is unprovided with 

 mines, the more exaggerated are the ideas of 

 the inhabitants respecting the facility, with 

 which riches are drawn from the bowels of the 

 earth. How much time did we not lose during 

 five years travels, in visiting, on the pressing 

 invitations of our hosts, ravines, of which the 

 pyritons strata have borne for ages the pompous 

 names of Mlnas de oro ! How often have we 

 grieved at seeing men of all classes, magis- 

 trates, pastors of villages, grave missionaries, 

 grinding, with inexhaustible patience, horn- 

 blende, or yellow mica, in order to extract gold 

 from it by means of mercury ! This rage for 

 the search of mines strikes us the more in a 

 climate, where the ground has need of being 

 but slightly raked to produce abundant har- 

 vests. 



After visiting the pyritous marls of the Rio 

 Juagua, we continued following the course of 

 the crevice, which stretches itself like a narrow 

 canal overshadowed by very lofty trees. We ob- 

 served strata on the left bank, opposite Cerro 

 del Cuchivano, singularly bent and twisted. 

 This phenomenon I had often admired at the 

 Ochsenberg * a in passing the Lake of Lucerne. 



* This mountain of Switzerland is composed of transition 



