XII 
YAQUIL GOLD-MINES 
283 
farthest point southward ; for we here turned at right angles 
towards the coast. We slept at the gold-mines of Yaquil, which 
are worked by Mr. Nixon, an American gentleman, to whose 
kindness I was much indebted during the four days I stayed at 
his house. The next morning we rode to the mines, which are 
situated at the distance of some leagues, near the summit of a 
lofty hill. On the way we had a glimpse of the lake Tagua- 
tagua, celebrated for its floating islands, which have been 
described by M. Gay. 1 They are composed of the stalks of 
various dead plants intertwined together, and on the surface 
of which other living ones take root. Their form is generally 
circular, and their thickness from four to six feet, of which 
the greater part is immersed in the water. As the wind blows, 
they pass from one side of the lake to the other, and often carry 
cattle and horses as passengers. 
When we arrived at the mine, I was struck by the pale 
appearance of many of the men, and inquired from Mr. Nixon 
respecting their condition. The mine is 450 feet deep, and 
each man brings up about 200 pounds weight of stone. With 
this load they have to climb up the alternate notches cut in 
the trunks of trees, placed in a zigzag line up the shaft. Even 
beardless young men, eighteen and twenty years old, with little 
muscular development of their bodies (they are quite naked 
excepting drawers) ascend with this great load from nearly the 
same depth. A strong man, who is not accustomed to this 
labour, perspires most profusely, with merely carrying up his 
own body. With this very severe labour, they live entirely on 
boiled beans and bread. They would prefer having bread 
alone ; but their masters, finding that they cannot work so 
hard upon this, treat them like horses, and make them eat the 
beans. Their pay is here rather more than at the mines of 
Jajuel, being from 24 to 28 shillings per month. They leave 
the mine only once in three weeks ; when they stay with their 
families for two days. One of the rules in this mine sounds 
very harsh, but answers pretty well for the master. The only 
method of stealing gold is to secrete pieces of the ore, and take 
them out as occasion may offer. Whenever the major-domo 
3 Annciles des Sciences Naturelles, March 1833. M. Gay, a zealous and able 
naturalist, was then occupied in studying every branch of natural history throughout 
the kingdom of Chile. 
