The semi-weekly miner., 1885-02-11
FROM chill.
An Interesting Descriptive Letter
From Serena, Chill.
Henry Gnyer, In q Letter to Judge A.
]. Davis, gives some Valuable
Information.

1uo IOllOWluS l0lC6T from Cu1u Will
be read with interest. Mr.. Guyer Is
very concise in his statements to
Judge Davis, and what he says may
be depended upon:
SERENA, CHILL, g. A.. Dec. q, 's4.
A. J. DAVIS. ESQ.
DEAR SIR:-After leaving you at
Omaha had a pleasant trip to New
York, remained till the 2Otb, then
took the steamer for Aspinwall. Had
a rice trip down the Atlantic, the
weather being fine. Crossed the
Isthmus, saw the work in progress on
the canal which Is huge undertake
ing. Much work has been done and
great amount set to be done. They
claimed to have5O, ,OOOJ Jamaica negroes
employed and a sgreat amount of
machinery at work. Hills are being
ieveled and they use many dummy
engines running on the narrow guage
tracks with dump cars which hold
from trhee to five toEs of earth. The
buildings used and owned by the
canal company are very plentiful and
are built upon stone and BRICK foun-
dations or pillars with free cjrcula.
tion underneath. All buildings are
of hard wood, brought ready framed
from France with roofs of corrugated,
galvanized iron. This seems to be
the principal material used for roof
ing throughout this whole southern
country. They report $l00, 0,O0O, 900
already expended on the canal and
the great channel Of commerce Is not
one quarter completed. At Panama
I had to lay over three days as the
authorities expected a revolution.
There was force OF rebels outside of
the town who We're hourly expected
to make raid. got away, however.
before any attack was made. I could
not get regular passenger steamer
80 took the freight boat. a small iron
steamer belonging to the English
Steam Navigation Co. The freight
boats stop at all the ports while the
passenger steamers only stop at
Callao and Valparaiso. 1t gave me
q chance to go ashore, see the pla :es,
people and the changes as we pro-
ceeded south. At Guayaquil they
were having their fourth of July
celebration which took in. They
had out sixteen fire engines, ak
steamers and several hand engines.
They made very good appearance
and the steamers done good work,
having been all made in the United
States. At Lima, Peru, I saw many
and curious things. About month
before they had fight right in the
city. The fronts of the buildings told
the tale. They were marked by th0us-
ahds Of bullets, indicating that things
must have been lively. I arrived at
Coquimbo, October -4th. 1t Is the
seaport for all this section. Serena
is eight miles further north on the
SEA coast but has no harbor. Water
is very scarce along the coast from
Callao down, and the port towns and
ports are all located as much as
possible where there are rivers or
streams coming into the ocean.
Serena is the most favored of
any port along the coast as
it is at the mouth Of
river about the size of the Jefferson
in Montana. The mill of this COM
pany is situated "a miles up the river
from Serena, on the line of the mar
row gauge railroad, which passes
along up the valley some 20 miles
further, and is being extended into
the interior to reach the rich agri-
cultural districts as Well as mines,
(which are scattered all over the
fcountry. Ores are principally chlo-
rides and copper. A few Chilian
mills, witch barrels for amalgamation,
Is about the extent of works to date.
This, it appears, is about the first
regular mill put up. The company
have three mines. The principal one
is the Veterana, 5-f0ot crevice OF
average 8O-ounce ore, chloride, with
some little galens, showing from
lowest workings, 200 feet deep. They
have sold considerable ore that gave
from 3OO TO 1000 ounces per ton.
The mine Is distant from mill IS
miles the ores are all packed on
mules, in cow-hide bags, at So per
ton, Chiliau money. Oar gold dol
lar is worth $1.6O here. The mill
was located here on account of fuel
and water power. 1t is fine, pleas
ant location, as the valley is all taken
up and cultivated, and is quite con-
trast to other places along the coast.
At Serena is large copper smelling
furnace or works. They work eight
furnaces, and make bar copper, and
to me it looked to be a very priml-
tive stJ le, yet they have cheap labor
and produce great deal of copper
and v ork very low grade ores. They
smelt without concentrating 4 per
cent. ores, yet they claim they will
have to quit on the lover grade ore
as the United States is producing so
much copper that the present price
won't allow them to work, as they