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 improvements introduced by
foreigners have been, first, reducing by previous roasting the copper
pyrites--which, being the common ore in Cornwall, the English miners
were astounded on their arrival to find thrown away as useless:
secondly, stamping and washing the scoriae from the old furnaces--by
which process particles of metal are recovered in abundance. I have
actually seen mules carrying to the coast, for transportation to
England, a cargo of such cinders. But the first case is much the most
curious. The Chilian miners were so convinced that copper pyrites
contained not a particle of copper, that they laughed at the Englishmen
for their ignorance, who laughed in turn, and bought their richest
veins for a few dollars. It is very odd that, in a country where
mining had been extensively carried on for many years, so simple a
process as gently roasting the ore to expel the sulphur previous to
smelting it, had never been discovered. A few improvements have
likewise been introduced in some of the simple machinery; but even to
the present day, water is removed from some mines by men carrying it up
the shaft in leathern bags!
The labouring men work very hard. They have little time allowed for
their meals, and during summer and winter they begin when it is light,
and leave off at dark. They are paid one pound sterling a month, and
their food is given them: this for breakfast consists of sixteen figs
and two small loaves of bread; for dinner, boiled beans; for supper,
broken roasted wheat grain. They scarcely ever taste meat; as, with
the twelve pounds per annum, they have to clothe themselves, and
support their families. The miners who work in the mine itself have
twenty-five shillings per month, and are allowed a little charqui. But
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