a league. On leaving the gully, they gradually ascended until they reached the ranchos at Jaquel, at the foot of the mountain where the mines were situated. It being too late to make the ascent to the mines that night, the running streams in the neighbourhood were visited, but nothing was found. They were entirely destitute of fluviatile shells and mollusca. Other objects of interest were, however, obtained, in the classes of insects and reptilia, which will be described in the reports of these different departments. At sunset the snowy mountains exhibited a magnificent sight; lighted up and glistening in the sunshine, it appeared as though some tremendous conflagration had broken out. After this, the progress of night produces a peculiar effect. It was quite dark in the valley, while the lofty summits were yet tinged by the setting sun. The limit of darkness was distinctly seen advancing upwards like a dark wall, and as it ascended, peak after peak became lost to view, until the whole was enshrouded in obscurity.

The part of this valley where the ranchos are situated is called La Vega of Jaquel. This is the principal smelting-place, the ore being brought here by mules from the foot of the mountain, down whose sides it is thrown from the mines. The descent is about two thousand feet, and very steep. Mr. Alderson stated that it took thirty seconds for the ore to descend. The face of the mountain from long usage in this way is worn quite smooth. The ranchos at the mine, about six hundred feet below the summit, on the steep mountain side, are visible from the smelting huts. The Jaquel valley is said to contain a few sulphur springs, which are reported as poisonous. Our gentlemen had not time to visit them. The temperature, before leaving San Felipe, at six o'clock, A. M., was 45°, at 10 A. M., 54°; at Jaquel, three hundred feet above the sea, at 5h 30m, it was 55°, at 11 P. M. 51.°

Mr. Newman had previously lost much property here by the burning of his whole establishment, excepting two buildings, fire having been communicated to the thatched roof by the sparks from the furnace, during a tornado that passed over. So rapidly had the flames spread, that it was with difficulty that Mr. Newman and his agent saved their lives. Besides the loss of buildings, a large quantity of machinery, lately imported from England, was destroyed.

On the 21st May, they set out on mules for the mines, accompanied by Mr. Alderson, and reached them about ten o'clock. Their first act was to change their boots for a pair of raw-hide shoes, such as are used by the miners, in order to insure a safer footing. They now entered the principal gallery, which was about seven feet high and five broad, excavated for about twenty yards horizontally; it then divides

into several branches, and these again into others, from fifteen to twenty yards in length.

The greatest extent of any one gallery is about thirty feet. The mountain has been penetrated horizontally to about four hundred feet, in the direction of northeast to east-northeast, as the veins run, and vertically to a depth of about one hundred and fifty feet. Each person was provided with a tallow candle, stuck in the end of a split stick six feet long, and caution was given not to lose sight of the guide, for the galleries, although small, are so numerous, and communicate with each other so frequently, that a person might easily be lost.

The ladders, or rather posts, by which the descents are made, are not a little dangerous. They are not all secured, so that it becomes necessary for one person to hold the ladder whilst another descends, and it causes no small uneasiness to see the foot of it resting on a mere ledge. These shafts are at times crossed by a gallery, where but a single post is laid over them, and the men pass over it by steadying themselves against the side-wall. At the bottom of one of the shafts, at about three hundred feet from the mouth of the mine, the thermometer, after remaining for half an hour, stood at 52°, the air outside being 56°. This may be considered a fair test of the temperature. They report that they perceive no difference in the mine, in winter and summer.

There appears to be little system in working the mines, and little knowledge of the structure of the rock or the courses of the veins. Mr. Alderson mentioned that a few months previously, they had been working for several weeks, extending a shaft, without meeting a particle of ore to repay their labour, and they were just about giving up the search, when the mayoral, or master-workman, declaring he would have a last blow for luck, struck the rock with all his force. This detached a large fragment, and to their surprise and delight, laid open a vein which proved the largest and richest that had been worked for many years. From this it would appear that the employment is attended with much uncertainty; and after exhausting one of these treasure deposits, there are no means or signs known to them by which they can ascertain the best direction to take to discover another.

This mine is situated in claystone, the sedimentary rock of the region, where it is intersected by a dike of compact clinkstone. The dike is about six feet wide. The adjoining claystone has a dark greenish brown colour, and resembles a wacke. It is so much fissured that it is difficult to break off a small piece which will present a fresh surface. The green carbonate of copper, and silicious carbonate of

copper (chrysocolla), stain the rock for one hundred feet from the vein, occupying the fissures, and giving the surface a green or bluish tinge. In some places chrysocolla forms in small botryoidal incrustations on the face of the rock. The ores of copper occur in veins in the claystone and the rock of this dike, but most abundantly near the junction of the two rocks. The veins are very irregular, and are more or less elongated. They are occasionally connected, but in the excavations frequently run out. In order to discover new ones, they follow the lines of the green carbonates, or the seams of calcareous spar and quartz. The name of metal is given as a general term to all the ores, that of quizo to the lode in which they are contained.

The ores contain more or less sulphur, and often a portion of arsenic. Some silver is also occasionally mixed with the copper. Some of the ores found at this mine have been very rich, yielding sixty-five to seventy per cent. of pure copper. The average yield is about fortyfive per cent. The various qualities are denominated, metal-regio, platiado, bronze, and piedra bruta. The last, as the name implies, is worthless.

The mines, by the light of the numerous candles, exhibited all the shades of green, blue, yellow, purple, bronze, &c., having a metallic and lustrous appearance. The confined air, with the heat of so many candles, made it quite oppressive; and persons who have not often visited mines, are subject to faintness and vertigo from this cause. Mr. Alderson and Mr. Dana were both affected by it. It was the first time the former had ever penetrated so far, Mr. Newman and himself being governed by the report of the mayoral, and the ore brought up in their operations. The miners were not a little astonished at our gentlemen loading themselves, besides the specimens of ores, with the piedra bruta, which they considered of no value. The manner of labour in the mines is in as rude a state as it was found in the agricultural branches of industry. A clumsy pick-axe, a short crowbar, a stonecutter's chisel, and an enormous oblong iron hammer, of twenty-five pounds weight, were the only tools. The hammer is only used when the ore is too high to be reached with the pick or crowbar. The miners, from the constant exercise of their arms and chest, have them we.. developed, and appear brawny figures. When the ore is too tough to be removed by the ordinary methods, they blast it off in small fragments, not daring to use large blasts, lest the rock should cave in upon them. Only a few weeks previous to their visit, the mayoral, while at the farthest end of the gallery, was alarmed by the rattling down of some stones, and before he could retreat, the walls caved in

for several yards outside of where he was, leaving but a small space. It required eighteen hours of unceasing effort by nearly a hundred men to extricate him from his perilous situation.

The ore is brought to the mouth of the mine on the backs of men, in sacks made of raw hide, and holding about one hundred pounds. Whenever a sufficient quantity to load a drove of mules is extracted, it is thrown down the mountain slide, and then carried to the furnace at Jaquel. Only seventeen miners were employed; previous to this the number employed was one hundred. Whenever a richer vein was struck a larger number were employed, who could always be easily obtained by foreigners, the natives preferring to work for them, as they say whatever the profits or losses may be, they are sure of being regularly paid. The wages are small-from three to four dollars per month, in addition to their food. They are allowed to draw a third of their pay on the last Saturday of every month, and full settlement is made twice a year. They are supplied with clothing and other necessaries, out of which the agent makes a per centage, and which is charged against their wages.

There is one admirable regulation of the Chilian government, that of not permitting liquors to be brought within a league of any mine, under a severe penalty, which is strictly enforced. The cost of the maintenance of each workman is not great; they are allowed as rations for breakfast four handfuls of dried figs, and the same of walnuts: value about three cents. For dinner they have bread, and fresh beef or pork. Small stores, as sugar and tea, they find themselves. One of the greatest inconveniences, and which is attended with some expense, is the supply of the miners with water, which has to be brought up the mountains.

The miners' huts are the last dwellings on the Chilian side of the Andes. Mr. Alderson mentioned, that in five hours' ride from thence, a lake was reported to exist, three leagues in circumference, on the summit of a conical mountain, which is surrounded by a beach of sand and gravel, and has no outlet. Several persons confirmed this statement as to the existence of the lake, that it had no visible outlet, and that the water was always at the same level. Although desirous of visiting so interesting a spot, they found they had not time left to accomplish it. They therefore determined, instead, to make a visit to the coal-mine which was reported as existing about two leagues farther on the Cordilleras. They reached this in about three hours. Leaving their mules, they scrambled up the face of a cliff for some two hundred feet, where some fragments of coal, more, however, resembling lignite, and retaining perfectly the structure of the original wood, were found.

Other pieces had the form of coal, and on ignition burned quite freely, showing the presence of bitumen and sulphur. The last was always found in small lumps, resembling the siftings of coal, and was embedded in a friable earth, containing saltpetre. No coal was found in situ; their time did not admit of any extended examination. Coal would indeed be a most valuable discovery for the Chilian mines, where wood is so scarce that they are prevented from reducing the ore, and in consequence, as I have before remarked, they are obliged to send it to Valparaiso for shipment. The principal ores which the mine of Mr. Newman affords, are the vitreous, gray, and variegated copper. Copper pyrites and the red oxide of copper, also occur, and the silicious carbonate (chrysocolla) is abundantly disseminated through the rocks. These ores are generally massive, or exhibit only imperfect traces of crystallization. Native copper is rarely found at this mine. Its occurrence is not welcomed by the miners, as they consider it a sure sign that the vein will soon run out. It is usually found with large quantities of red oxide of copper. According to Mr. Dana, this would seem to indicate that the native copper and red oxide have originated from the reduction of other ores by heat, and this would account for the above fact, which seems to be well established among miners.

Copper ores occur sparingly at other localities in this part of Chili; the valuable mines are chiefly confined to the northern provinces.

After again returning to Jaquel, they mounted their horses, and reached San Felipe, in about two hours' hard gallop. The temperature during the day varied from 44° at six o'clock in the morning, at Jaquel, to 58° at noon, on the hill at the mines; and at 10 P. M., at San Felipe, it was at 47°.

On the 22d, they set out on their return, after a good deal of delay, owing to the stupidity of their peon, who had indulged too much in his favourite chicha. Nothing could exceed the kindness and attention shown them by Mr. Newman, his lady, and Mr. Chase. Mr. Alderson, the agent, devoted himself to them for two days, during which time he left nothing undone that could promote and forward the object of their visit. It affords me great pleasure to bear testimony also to the numerous fine specimens of copper, &c., from other mines, which Mr. Newman presented to the Expedition, and to return him our thanks for them and the kind attention of his lady. Our gentlemen returned to the rancho of Evangelisto Celidono, where they passed the night, and were furnished with a like casuela as before. All the farmers they met were a simple, good-hearted set, caring for little beyond their own immediate neighbourhood, and knowing little but to supply their own