276 
CENTRAL CHILE 
CHAP. 
block of wood, hollowed out, yet weighing three or four pounds. 
The Guaso is perhaps more expert with the lazo than the 
Gaucho ; but, from the nature of the country, he does not 
know the use of the bolas. 
August iStk .-—-We descended the mountain, and passed 
some beautiful little spots, with rivulets and fine trees. Having 
slept at the same hacienda as before, we rode during the two 
succeeding days up the valley, and passed through Ouillota, 
which is more like a collection of nursery-gardens than a town. 
The orchards were beautiful, presenting one mass of peach- 
blossoms. I saw, also, in one or two places the date-palm ; 
it is a most stately tree ; and I should think a group of them 
in their native Asiatic or African deserts must be superb. We 
passed likewise San Felipe, a pretty straggling town like 
Ouillota. The valley in this part expands into one of those 
great bays or plains, reaching to the foot of the Cordillera, 
which have been mentioned as forming so curious a part of 
the scenery of Chile. In the evening we reached the mines 
of Jajuel, situated in a ravine at the flank of the great chain. 
I stayed here five days. My host, the superintendent of the 
mine, was a shrewd but rather ignorant Cornish miner. He 
had married a Spanish woman, and did not mean to return 
home ; but his admiration for the mines of Cornwall remained 
unbounded. Amongst many other questions, he asked me, 
“ Now that George Rex is dead, how many more of the family 
of Rexes are yet alive ? ” This Rex certainly must be a 
relation of the great author Finis, who wrote all books ! 
These mines are of copper, and the ore is all shipped to 
Swansea, to be smelted. Hence the mines have an aspect 
singularly quiet, as compared to those in England : here no 
smoke, furnaces, or great steam-engines, disturb the solitude of 
the surrounding mountains. 
The Chilian government, or rather the old Spanish law, 
encourages by every method the searching for mines. The 
discoverer may work a mine on any ground, by paying five 
shillings ; and before paying this he may try, even in the 
garden of another man, for twenty days. 
It is now well known that the Chilian method of mining 
is the cheapest. My host says that the two principal improve- 
