The ancient Chilese had discovered the art of making salt, both from sea water and from inland salt springs; calling the former _chiadi_, and the latter _lilco-chiadi_, or salt from the water of rocks. They procured dyes of various colours for their clothes, both from the juice of plants and from mineral earths, and had discovered the art of fixing them by means of the _polcura_, an aluminous or astringent mineral. Instead of soap, they used the back of the _quillai_, which is an excellent substitute. In their language there are many words discriminative of various kinds of baskets and mats, which they manufactured from various vegetables. From a plant called _gnocchia_, they procured a strong fibrous substance resembling hemp, of which they made ropes and fishing nets of different kinds; and the inhabitants on the coast used canoes of different kinds and sizes, and floats or rafts of wood, or of inflated seal skins. Though not peculiarly addicted to hunting, they were accustomed to kill the wild animals and birds of the country, both for amusement and subsistence; for which purpose they used bows and arrows, and the _laque_ or running noose which is employed with so much ingenuity by many of the South American natives. It is a singular fact that they had the same device as the Chinese, for catching wild ducks in their lakes and rivers, covering their heads with perforated gourds, and wading among the flocks. They had advanced so far in the knowledge of numbers, as to have distinctive names for the ten units, and for an hundred and a thousand, with all the intermediate numbers compounded of decimal terms. To preserve the memory of their transactions, they used a bunch of threads of several colours called _pron_, similar to the _quippo_ of the Peruvians, oh which they cast a number of knots according to circumstances. The subject was indicated by the colour of the threads, and the knots designated the number or quantity, but I have not been able to discover any other purpose to which this species of register could be applied. The _quippo_ is still used by the shepherds in Peru, to keep an account of the number in their flocks, to mark the day and hour when the different ewes yeaned, or when any of their lambs are lost.