From the publisher
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1839 edition. Excerpt: ...on boiled beans and bread. They would prefer having the latter alone; but their masters, finding 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 finds a lump thus hidden, its full value is stopped out of the wages of all the men; who thus, without they all combine, are obliged to keep watch over each other. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, March, 1833. M. Gay, a zealous and able naturalist, is now occupied in studying every branch of natural history throughout the kingdom of Chile. f In another mine, as will hereafter be mentioned, I picked out a load by hazard, and weighed it: it was 197 pounds. When the ore is brought to the mill, it is ground into an impalpable powder; the process of washing removes all the lighter particles, and amalgamation finally secures the gold dust The washing, when described, sounds a very simple process; but it is beautiful to see how "the exact adaption of the current of water to the specific gravity of the gold, so easily separates the powdered matrix from the metal. The mud which passes from the mills is collected into pools, where it subsides, and every now and then is cleared out, and thrown into a common heap. A great deal of chemical action then commences, salts of various kinds effloresce on the surface, and the mass becomes hard. In the heap which I examined, ...
