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 these men come down from their bleak
habitations only once in every fortnight or three weeks.
During my stay here I thoroughly enjoyed scrambling
about these huge mountains. The geology, as might have
been expected, was very interesting. The shattered and
baked rocks, traversed by innumerable dykes of greenstone,
showed what commotions had formerly taken place. The
scenery was much the same as that near the Bell of Quillota
- dry barren mountains, dotted at intervals by bushes
with a scanty foliage. The cactuses, or rather opuntias
were here very numerous. I measured one of a spherical
figure, which, including the spines, was six feet and four
inches in circumference. The height of the common cylindrical,
branching kind, is from twelve to fifteen feet, and
the girth (with spines) of the branches between three and
four feet.
A heavy fall of snow on the mountains prevented me
during the last two days, from making some interesting
excursions.
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