mushroom growth of a mining center a town sprang up: “On the plain beneath, the village or town of the Placilla, or Juan Godoi, is flourishing,…upward to the very summit of the hill, which is about 4500 feet above the sea, the whole steep scarp appears studded with immense steps of débris, with huge buttresses to support them; these are the mouths of the vari- ous mines. Perched on these resting-places are discerned the numberless houses, huts, and other belongings of each ‘min- eral,’ and the whole mountain seems covered with them,” wrote Colonel Lloyd in 1853.[1]
Sixteen years later (1848) a muleteer carrying ores between Copiapé and the port of Flamenco discovercd Tres Puntas. Lloyd has given graphic descriptions of the hardships en- countered, here as elsewhere in the Chilean desert, from the scarcity of water. At first no water was known within thirty leagues of the mines, and a 9-gallon cask of brackish water cost $8. Subsequently drinkable water was found in wells five and ten leagues from the mines and retailed for one-eighth of the original price. Yet in five years there had sprung up a town of 4000 souls.
The latest of the great silver discoveries was that of Cara- coles, a traditional ‘‘cerro de plata”’ effectively brought to light in 1870. Caracoles lics on the road from San Pedro de Atacama to Antofagasta in the hilly basin west of the Cordil- lera Domeyko. Although at an elevation of 3000 meters (10,000 feet) precipitation is extremely light. At the end of the rainy season of the plateau, that is towards the end of April, an occasional cloud may detach itself from the masses that gather round the summits of the cordillera and produce precipitation, usually in the form of snow but so slight that it evaporates without producing any effect upon the ground.[2]
In the extent of its widespread influence Caracoles was perhaps the most important of the discoveries. Its progress has been described in detail.[3] In 1870 Caracoles was simply a
- ↑ J. A. Lloyd: The Mines of Copiapó, Journ. Royal Geogr. Soc., Vol. 23, 1853, pp, 196-212; reference on p. 199.
- ↑ Felipe Labastie: Estudio sobre el mineral de Caracoles, Santiago, 1901.
- ↑ André Bresson; Bolivia, Paris, 1886, pp. 300 et seq.
A. Pesse: Le district minier de Caracoles, Bol. Soc. Géogr. de Peris, Ser. 6, Vol. 7, 1874. pp. 177–181.
