Valparaiso is the second city of Chile in commerce and in population, containing about 40,000 souls. Business is mainly in the hands of Europeans of various nations. It is only in the last few years that the city has made any notable growth: twenty years ago it had no more than four or five thousand inhabitants. The greater part of the houses in Chile are of one story and built of sun-dried or fired bricks. This is a necessary precaution, on account of the frequent earthquakes, caused by sixteen volcanoes at proportionate distances and in constant operation. These earthquakes are considered the great calamity of the Chilians. The dwellings of the poor, who appear to be many, especially in the outskirts of the cities, are only miserable huts of straw or twigs, veritable dens of misery, ignorance and vice. The poor in Chile are in a pitiable state as regards religion; their poverty is only too often caused by their great indolence and laziness. The interiors of the houses of the rich compare favorably with the most splendid mansions of the European nobility.
Chile extends from the confines of the desert of Atacama to Cape Horn. The chain of the Andes separates it from the Argentine Republic. It stretches 620 geographical leagues from north to south and its width varies from fiftyfive to twenty-two leagues. Meantime Chile may be considered as a plain, or rather a continuation of the Andes. Its mineralogy is very rich and vast. It may perhaps excel any other part of the globe in metallic products. Mines of gold, silver, copper, tin and lead and all the metals and semi-metals are numerous and abundant. I have obtained a fine collection from the director of the Museum of Santiago, which I have forwarded to the Museum of Brussels
through Mr. De Boom, residing in Valparaiso. Captain Hall says that several hundred copper mines are being worked in Chile, with one of gold and three of silver to every fifty of copper. He supposes that the annual production of copper is 6o,ooo quintals of loo Spanish pounds each, and that the yearly exportation amounts to more than