The Chilian miners are a peculiar race of men in their habits.

Living for weeks together in the most desolate spots, when they descend to the villages on feast-days there is no excess of extravagance into which they do not run.

They sometimes gain a considerable sum, and then, like sailors with prize-money, they try how soon they can contrive to squander it.

They drink excessively, buy quantities of clothes, and in a few days return penniless to their miserable abodes, there to work harder than beasts of burden.

This thoughtlessness, as with sailors, is evidently the result of a similar manner of life.