stance, pieces have been procured of more than eight feet in length. These pieces are so even and smooth, that they are used by the painters to grind their colours upon, without any preparation. It is not easy to account for the arrangement and regular formation of this stone; the earth in the environs is composed of sand, clay or marle, and between the layers only is a coarse sparry or quartzeous sand to be found.

In the plains, and upon most of the mountains, are to be seen a great number of flat circular stones, of five or six inches in diameter, with a hole through the middle. These stones which are either granite or porphyry, have doubtless received this form by artificial means, and I am induced to believe that they were the clubs or maces of the ancient Chilians, and that the holes were perforated to receive the handles.*

SECT. VIII. Salts.--That part of the Andes corresponding with the provinces of Copiapo and Coquimbo, contains several mountains of fossil salt, dispersed in strata or layers, crystallized in transparent cubes, frequently coloured

The nations of the South Sea Islands, discovered by Captain Cook, have among their weapons clubs of a similar form to what our author supposes these to have been.-Fr. Trans.

Any shape would be better for the head of a mace than the flat circle. Is it not more likely that this was a missile weapon, similar to the chuckra of the Hindoos ?--E. E.

with yellow, blue, and red. The surface generally consists of an argillaceous earth. This salt is excellent, but it is used only by such as live. in the vicinity; as those who are at a distance prefer the sea salt, which is obtained in great quantities, and of a fine quality upon the coast, particularly at Bucalemu, Boyeruca, and Vichuquen. In the middle districts, however, the salt from the springs of Pehuenches, which I have already mentioned in treating of mineral waters, is most generally used.

Sal-ammoniac, either incrusted or in a state of efflorescence, is very common in many parts of Chili. It is also found of various colours, in a fossil state, in the vicinity of volcanoes, of which it appears to be a production.

Much of the marly ground in the neighbourhood of the city of Coquimbo is covered with a crust of some inches of crystallized nitre, with a base of fixed alkali.*

In other parts of the same province this salt is found with a calcareous base; but we must not consider as nitre all the salts which the inhabitants represent as such, for the natron is likewise found there, or earthy alkaline salt, combined with sea salt, and sometimes with the volatile

*Nor is saltpetre less common there, which is frequently found in the valleys an inch thick upon the surface of the earth-Frazier's Voyage, vol. i.

alkali, to which they improperly give the name of nitre.

Besides common alum, and that called the plumed,* which are found in many parts of Chili, a semi-crystallized aluminous stone has been discovered in the Andes. This stone, called by the inhabitants polcura, is brittle and of a pale white, of a very fine grain and a vitriolic taste; its external appearance is like that of white marble, but it contains no calcareous particles, nor is it in reality any thing but a clay saturated with vitriolic acid, analagous to the aluminous stene of Tolfa. It is useful in dying, and the quarries from whence it is procured comprehend a space of many leagues among the mountains, which also afford another stone in some measure resembling it, but coarser and of much less value. Its yellow hue, and the quantity of sulphur and pyrites it contains, distinguish this last from the real polcura, which is very pure, and not combined with any metallic substance.

The four principal kinds of vitriol, the green or iron, the blue or copper, the white with a zinc base, and the mixed, are found in a stalactite or crystallized state as well as that of efflorescence in the mines, and even isolated in different earths; the metallic substances which produce it being,

* This name is given to a species of talc, consisting of fila ments, otherwise called the asbestos stone.-Dictionnaire de l'Academie.

under different modifications, dispersed throughout the country.

SECT. IX. Bitumens.-The Andes, heated by subterraneous fires, produce in many places white and red naphtha, petroleum, asphaltos, and mineral pitch of two kinds, the common, and another of a bluish black, which when burnt exhales an agreeable odour like amber. This bitumen, which I believe to be condensed naphtha, I have named bitumen andinum, and it is perhaps only a variety of the Persian mummy. It is not uncommon, and is discovered in large quantities in those places that produce it. Jet is very plentiful in the Araucanian provinces; and near the city of Conception, and in various other parts of Chili, pit-coal is found in great abundance.*

Considerable quantities of ambergris are thrown up by the sea upon the Araucanian coast and the islands of Chiloé. The Indians call it meyene (the excrement of whales) and pretend that when

* The mountains in the neighbourhood of the Puelches afford mines of sulphur and of salt; and in Talcaguano, Ire◄ quin, and even in the city of Conception, several good mines of coal have been discovered at the depth of one or two feet from the surface.-Frazier's Voyage, vol. i.

†The Brazilian Indians believed it to be the food of the whale, which had been vomited. These opinions tend strongly to confirm the received theory that it is the ill-digested food of this animal.-E. E.

it is first thrown up it is black, that it next becomes brown, and after a long exposure to the sun acquires a grey colour. Pieces of yellow amber are occasionally found upon the shores, which prove that Chili contains also this valuable pro- . duction. In the province of Copiapo, one of the richest parts of the world in minerals, are two little mountains almost entirely composed of the most beautiful crystallized sulphur, so pure. that it does not require refining.* And there is scarce a valley in the Andes, but what contains a reservoir of this mineral.

SECT. X. Pyrites.-The whole territory of Chili is sown with pyrites. They are of different qualities and shapes, and discovered at various depths, frequently in groupes, but more usually in veins varying in extent and thickness. They most generally accompany metals of some kind, and are found both in veins of ore, in chalk, clay, and common stone, but rarely in quartz or in rock crystal.

In the three divisions, under which they may be classed, the iron, the copper, and the arsenic,

* On the high ridge of the Cordilleras, forty leagues southeast from the harbour of Copiapo, are the best mines of sulphur. It is procured, from veins about two feet wide, in a state so pure as to require no refining.-Frazier's Voyage, vol. i.