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Rh at the period of the catastrophe a considerable town.

Returning to the trapiché we met with the proprietor, who gave us a very hospitable reception, and showed us his mill, the great wheel of which was turned by a considerable stream descending from the mountain, and forming two small falls, one of about ten feet and the other five. On this trapiché he employs about sixteen men, who receive, some one shilling sterling, and others nine pence a day, and are occupied in the manufacture of panelas. The process is very simple: the cane which grows luxuriantly in the valley, is cut and crushed between cylindrical rollers; the juice which flows into the vat beneath, is then boiled, and when arrived at a sufficient degree of consistency, is poured into small hollow wooden beds, the size of the panela, where it cools, hardens, and forms a solid cake, in which state it is sold for the manufacture of chicha and agua-diente. For these lands the proprietor paid a rent of 100 dollars annually; he had sown the cane and built the hut and mill at a very cheap rate, and at the time we visited was able to produce 680 pounds daily, which reckoning 280 days to the year, afforded 190,400 pounds, or 7,616 arrobas, producing at a rial and a half for each panela of five pounds weight, a sum equal to £1,428 sterling. That the manufacture of