English, was not supposed to contain a particle of copper. On a scale
of profits nearly as great as in the above instance, piles of cinders,
abounding with minute globules of metallic copper, were purchased; yet
with these advantages, the mining associations, as is well known,
contrived to lose immense sums of money. The folly of the greater
number of the commissioners and shareholders amounted to
infatuation;--a thousand pounds per annum given in some cases to
entertain the Chilian authorities; libraries of well-bound geological
books; miners brought out for particular metals, as tin, which are not
found in Chile; contracts to supply the miners with milk, in parts
where there are no cows; machinery, where it could not possibly be
used; and a hundred similar arrangements, bore witness to our
absurdity, and to this day afford amusement to the natives. Yet there
can be no doubt, that the same capital well employed in these mines
would have yielded an immense return, a confidential man of business, a
practical miner and assayer, would have been all that was required.
Captain Head has described the wonderful load which the "Apires," truly
beasts of burden, carry up from the deepest mines. I confess I thought
the account exaggerated: so that I was glad to take an opportunity of
weighing one of the loads, which I picked out by hazard. It required
considerable exertion on my part, when standing directly over it, to
lift it from the ground. The load was considered under weight when
found to be 197 pounds. The apire had carried this up eighty
perpendicular yards,--part of the way by a steep passage, but the
greater part up notched poles, placed in a zigzag line up the shaft.
According to the general regulation, the apire is not allowed to halt
for breath, except the mine is six hundred feet deep. The average load
is considered as rather more than 200 pounds, and I have been assured
that one of 300 pounds (twenty-two stone and a half) by way of a trial
has been brought up from the deepest mine! At this time the apires were
bringing up the usual load twelve times in the day; that is 2400 pounds
from eighty yards deep; and they were employed in the intervals in
breaking and picking ore.
These men, excepting from accidents, are healthy, and appear cheerful.
Their bodies are not very muscular. They rarely eat meat once a week,
and never oftener, and then only the hard dry charqui. Although with a
knowledge that the labour was voluntary, it was nevertheless quite
revolting to see the state in which they reached the mouth of the mine;
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