The following table will afford some idea of the amount of work, the purity of the metals from different mines, and the cost of reduction. Capital letters following the names of mines are initials of the several mineral districts. All not marked are within the Chañarcillo (Bolaco) district.

The charge for amalgamation is according to the ley or ratio of pure silver contained in the ore, as ascertained by the analysis. This is expressed by the number of marks of bar silver that a cajon will yield. A mark is eight ounces, which, in preparing the above table, I have valued at $9. The deduction in favor of the miner is not made at any other establishment, and its presumed object is to attract custom. No returns from them for other years were obtainable; and in their absence we can best judge of the increase of the mining interest from the returns of silver exported since 1830 from the Copiapó custom-house.

I could not learn any satisfactory reason for the great falling off in the exportations of 1836 and 1840; and we must attribute it to the variable success to which mining is subject. That of 1851 is attributable to the revolutionary condition of the country, and the temporary abandonment of many mines in consequence thereof. The rapid increase in 1849 is principally due to the discoveries at Tres Puntas in September of that year.

Besides the silver exported in 1850, there were also sent from the province:

Making an aggregate of $5,867,691, of which $2,659,021 was shipped from Copiapó to Valparaiso, and the remainder direct to foreign markets; equal proportions having followed like destinations from Huasco.

In 1849 the mineral district of Tres Puntas was found. It is within the desert of Atacama, and distant from the city of Copiapó, in a northwest direction, some seventy-five miles. A road known as the "camino de los Incas," which proceeds to the north, in an almost arrow-like line, from the vicinity of the city, for the first time in that distance makes a detour round the base of these hills, and resumes its original direction on the opposite side. It would thus appear that the followers of "the children of the sun" never learned of the entombed wealth beside the path so strangely departed from, the stones marking which are elsewhere in an undeviating line over hill and valley. The summit of the hill is about 7,500 feet above the ocean. Within many leagues of the mines there is not a drop of water; yet so astonishing were the accounts of its riches, that professional mine-hunters immediately flocked to it from all parts of the province, and already it rivals Chañarcillo, both in the number of mines wrought and operatives. Most extraordinary are the accounts respecting veins found in some of its mines, the almost fabulous narrations of the early discoveries at Chañarcillo being cast into the shadow by the millions that it is said may be embraced in a glance in the "Buena Esperanza." Only such fortune can compensate one for remaining in a country utterly arid, where even the air is so parched that the skin of the face and hands cracks during the first four or five days, and the nostrils, eyelids, and ears become painful to the touch. At first it was necessary to transport everything from Copiapó; though latterly provisions have been sent from the southern provinces to the little roadstead of Flamenco, about twenty-five leagues to the westward. Chañarcillo, also, derives a portion of its supplies through the port of Totoral, twelve leagues west of it, by the road across an equally desert plain. Yet the cost of every necessity can only be properly appreciated from a statement of the actual prices. In 1850 they were as follows:

With such inevitable expenses, it is impossible to work many of the multitude of coppermines found in almost every part of the province, those only which are near the coast repaying

cost. Yet the cateadores are none the less busy, but continue to pass days and weeks exam-
ining and denouncing their discoveries in expectation that a day will come when they may sell
or work to advantage. What privations this class of men undergo can only be estimated by one
who visits a country that offers no resources to sustain or shelter life north of latitude 30°, and
who sees them take leave of their fellow-men. Their whole equipment is a mule or two loaded
with water and provisions, and they are uncertain whether they will obtain other reward for
their toil than a scanty allowance of food from day to day. One of them told me he once found
himself near the base of the Andes in the desert of Atacama, without a drop of water for either
the animals or himself, when, after hunting nearly all day, he espied a green-looking spot high
in a ravine, surely indicating a supply of the longed-for element. Reaching it after several
hours of fatiguing travel, it proved as bitter as the waters of the sea of Sodom. Even his mules
would not drink of it; nor did he succeed in finding a potable supply until late next day,
when scarcely able to drag one foot after the other. His journey was also at midsummer, when
there are no clouds to screen one from the sun's scorching rays, and the reflection from the
sand and rocky hill-sides is really terrific. Think of passing weeks in such a country and
climate, with saddle-cloths or sand for a bed, a saddle for a pillow, the sky as a cover, and a
little charqui or cheese and hard bread, with water, the only food!

So far it has been ascertained that the metallic distributions in northern Chile are almost
uniformly regular. Gold ores are found in the Andes; silver veins in the chains of hills next
west; and copper most abundantly in the elevations nearer to the coast. The following returns
were made to the Intendente for the year 1850:

In accordance with the Ordenanzas de Mineria, when a new mine is discovered, the finder must designate its location before the proper tribunal; specify the direction and inclination of the vein; excavate an aperture one and a half varas in diameter, by thirty varas deep, in the line of the vein; and then publish a notice of the same, stating the day and hour of his discovery. Should no other person establish priority of discovery within a reasonable time, he is entitled to a patent for a portion of ground embracing it, which shall be 200 varas long, with a breadth varying from 200 varas when the vein is perpendicular, to 112 varas if its inclination is 45°. It is of no consequence whether the land on which the discovery is made be private property or not the finder has the same rights; and should it be an entirely new district, he is further entitled to three contiguous lots, of which his vein may be embraced in the central one. Should there be more than one vein, he may claim a fee-simple title to a lot embracing each of them. The Ordenanza excludes foreigners from these privileges; but custom has abrogated law, and they now enjoy equal rights with natives.

Want of knowledge not only in scientific mining, but even of the simple processes of surveying, soon led to disappointments, losses, altercations, and lawsuits, as numberless, almost, as the mines at Chañarcillo, and many a lawyer came in for the lion's share of the profits. By law each mine is divided into twenty-four shares, or parts, called "varas," one or all of which may be assigned or transferred by its proprietor, like any other stock. Probably the earliest suit dates from the "Colorada" (red) mine, whose discoverer, one Peralta, generously went on distributing shares until apparent sterility brought thoughtless prodigality to a stop; though it is said that before the mine was abandoned he had actually given away many more shares than it represented. Shortly afterwards other claimants denounced the Colorada; and with the opening of a valuable vein, up sprung the recipients of Peralta's generosity, each of whom filed a suit for his share, endeavoring to show that the legal period had not transpired between the abandonment and re-denunciation, so that "La Colorada" has become celebrated in the legal annals of Copiapó. But this is not the only one on the docket. Nearly a hundred others were similarly locked up; and so universal had suits become, that the proprietor of a modern discovery finding his title unquestioned, named the mine "Sin pleito"-without a law-suit. If those now pending can be permanently adjusted, the numbers will undoubtedly diminish with the increase of intelligence necessarily to result from the school for special education in mining operations. The Mining Board, who direct all matters appertaining to the mining interest, could not have made a more useful or wiser application of a portion of their funds than in this establishment. This board (Junta de Mineria) is chosen by the miners to represent them with the Intendente and general government, as well as to prescribe rules for their common welfare. For the purpose of perfecting such propositions as are assented to by the local or general government, a share of all metals confiscated for violations of law, and a tax of half a real on every mark of silver exported through the custom-house, are assigned them as revenue. With this they pay for the police of the several mining districts; the repairs of roads; a chaplain at El Bolaco; and a contribution to the city hospital. About $50,000 were thus received and expended in 1850; part of it being for the expenses of laborers from the southern provinces. Want of operatives in the mining districts made it necessary to offer a free passage and a bonus to every family that would come to Atacama for labor in the mines; and when it is remembered how indolent are the lower orders, how little they care for the morrow, and how impossible it is with their habits to save sufficient for such a journey, it will be justly inferred that this was the only mode to obtain them. The inducements held out by the Junta tempted no less than 1,500 to emigrate within twelve or fourteen months after their offer was generally made known.

For the reasons already stated, numerous as are the mines, and rich as are many of the copper ores in the province, very little had been done with them prior to 1851. That the rail

road, by reducing the cost of transportation to one half, will bring coal to a price which will permit its use at the capital, or the ores be conveyed to the port at a fair profit, and thus force these mines into operation, I have not the least doubt. Huasco in this respect is much better located. Its mines are in many cases quite near, coal comes from England in ballast, and fifteen furnaces find constant employment. At the city of Copiapó there are but five furnaces, and their fires are supplied with wood of a very indifferent kind.

We returned to Copiapó on the morning of the 8th, having passed the preceding night at Totorallillo, and with pretty much the same fate as on the journey up; so that it was no trifling pleasure to enter again the commodious establishment of my hospitable host. To speak only of the hospitality of the Copiapinos would be to do great injustice to other traits of character not less appreciable, and I should violate my own impulses not to express gratitude for the unremitting kindness and civility of those whom it was my good fortune to meet. In their agreeable conversation, in offers of service, whether to aid in observations, to accompany me to interesting localities, or in presenting rare specimens of silver ores, they seemed never to tire in the four remaining days of the visit.

From circum-meridian observations of the sun and stars on opposite sides of the zenith, the
latitude of the plaza is 27° 22′ 23′′ south; and on the assumption that the chronometer had a
uniform rate from the time of leaving Valparaiso until my return to it, its longitude is 4h. 41m.
52s. 5 W. If a mean of all the barometric observations (27) be adopted as the true pressure,
the elevation above the sea is 1,286 feet. The extreme fluctuation during the seven days through
which the latter observations extend was 0.172 inch, or from 28.528 to 28.700 inches. The
temperature at 3 P. M. of the same days was 69°.6, and at midnight 51°.3; the wet thermo-
meter showing at the same hours, respectively, 55°.3 and 46°.5. A westerly wind commences
early in the morning, and blows up the valley with increasing freshness until towards 3 P. M.,
when it gradually subsides; and the nights are almost always calm. There were only three
occasions when the wind blew from any other direction, and I was assured that variable winds
were quite as rare during other seasons of the year. At twenty of the twenty-seven observa-
tions there was a perfectly clear sky, an atmospheric condition existing for at least ten months
of the twelve. On the 9th of July, at noon, the temperature of the water in a well of Don
Diego Carvallo, near the plaza, was 67°.7; that of the air at the same time 74°.2. The
depth of the well is fourteen feet. On the 11th, at 5h. 15m. A. M., there was quite a severe
earthquake. As near as it was possible to estimate the direction of the wave, it moved from
north to south, and was unusually long. Some ten minutes later a second shock, of much less
violence, followed. The latter was preceded through a long interval by a sound not unlike the
rushing of wind through a forest, and was totally unlike any sound I had previously heard
attending this phenomenon. The first shock was almost without noise.
A third shock was

felt at twenty-three minutes after noon of the same day, the oscillation continuing only a second
or two.
Neither of them was noticed at the cities to the southward.

Leaving the city at ten o'clock of July 13, in a carriage well cumbered with boxes of instruments, the end of the railroad was not reached until two hours after the time calculated upon; a delay which came near proving very serious to me. As the day train had gone down to Caldera, the engineers very promptly and courteously placed at my disposition a hand-car, with two peons to work it, cautioning me, at starting, that two trains were coming up with parts of their encampment, then in progress of transferment to a new station. As we had daylight, and they came slowly, it was an easy matter to see them in time for the removal of our little vehicle; but night closed in as we were descending the last steep grade some nine miles from the port, and just at the only spot on the road where there are cuttings of any extent. The peons having given the car an extra impetus to carry us down the plane without farther labor, and seated themselves in the bottom so as to offer the least possible resistance to the air, we were rattling down the grade at the rate of ten to twelve miles the hour, when suddenly I perceived a dark object in a curve of the road ahead. No intimation had been given me by the engineers of

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