Manchurian Books

As the localities are very mountainous, the railroad
will have to make considerable windings, in order to profit by the
level tracts, and this will occasion an enormous outlay, quite out
of proportion to the present state of trade or the amount of
passenger traffic. At present, there are not more than two or three
vehicles a day from one place to the other, and if by chance ten or
fifteen passengers come from Santiago to Valparaiso, the thing is
talked of over the whole town. This has given rise to the belief
that the construction of a railroad has merely been seized on as an
excuse, in order to enable those concerned to search about the
country undisturbed for gold and silver.
Persons discovering mines are highly favoured, and have full right
of property to their discovery, being obliged merely to notify the
same to the government. This licence is pushed to such an extent,
that if, for instance, a person can advance any plausible grounds
for asserting that he has found a mine in a particular spot, such as
under a church or house, etc.


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