In times of scarcity corn has been sent from San Juan to Buenos Ayres, a distance of upwards of a thousand miles; but this can never answer under ordinary circumstances, from the great expense attending the land carriage. It is different with the wines and brandies, which, after all charges, can be sold in most of the provinces of the interior, and even at Buenos Ayres, at a fair profit. They are in general demand amongst the lower orders, and, if pains were taken with them, might be very much improved. I have had samples of as many as eight or ten different qualities, all of them good, sound, strong-bodied wines, and only requiring more care in their preparation for market. In the northern part of this province, in the lower ranges of the Cordillera, is the district of Jachal, in which are what are called the Gold Mines:--they are, as far as I could learn, much in the same state as those of La Carolina in the province of San Luis, already spoken of. Their yearly produce was estimated, in 1825, at 80,000 dollars, the greater part of which was sent to Chile to be coined at the mint of Santiago. The accuracy of this calculation has been disputed, but, men if true to its fullest extent, the amount is of no great consequence. The situation of the city of San Juan is in latitude 31° 4´, according to Molina. Mr. Arrowsmith has placed it in longitude 68° 57´ 30". The climate is described as truly heavenly, and the people as a well-disposed race, extremely anxious to improve both their moral and political condition. In this they have had chiefly to struggle with the countervailing influence of an ignorant, vicious, and bigoted priesthood, which has been greatly opposed to all innovations:--the political power, however, of this class of persons is fast on the wane at San Juan, as in most other parts of the Republic. PASSES OF THE ANDES. I shall conclude this chapter with a list of the passes across the Andes from the several provinces of this republic of which I have any account: they are twelve in number:-- First.--The most northerly is a continuation of the road called the Despoblado, which crosses the mountainous districts of the north-western part of the province of Salta by the mines of Yngaguasi to Atacama. Second.--A pass from the province of La Rioja communicates with Guasco and Copiapo in Chile.[75] Third.--Another, further south, leads from the province of San Juan to Coquimbo. Fourth.--That called Los Patos on the north flank of the great mountain of Aconcagua, descending into Chile by the valley of the Putaendo, a small river which joins the larger one of Aconcagua in the plains below, near the town of San Felipe. It was by this road that General San Martin made his celebrated march over the Andes with the army of Buenos Ayres in 1817, which led to the liberation of Chile from the Spanish yoke.