Lota is also another mining town on this same bay, and is a town of about fifteen thousand people. This city and Coronel are really twin ports. Lota was founded by Matias Cousiño, who opened up the mines and established smelter works in 1855. The company owns a large amount of property and employs several thousand men. It furnishes huts, free medical attendance, a church, schools and a hospital for its employees. The sight of this town is the wonderful palace built by his widow, which was constructed at a cost of many thousands of dollars. It is a _château_ of white Italian marble, and stands in the centre of a French landscape garden. There are ravines, fountains, statuary, arbours, terraces, grottoes, artificial lakes and a small zoological exhibit on the grounds. It blends French and English landscape gardening with some original ideas. Few country homes in Europe can compare with it. It is said that all the material was brought from France in the Señora Doña Isadora Goyenecheo de Cousiño’s own ships, and the interior is adorned with fine furniture and decorations by famous French artists. Cousiño Park at Lota has become the pride of Chile. By far the most important town is Concepción, also in the coal district, and which is known as the southern capital. It has had many serious struggles with the Indians, gaunt famine and the still more terrible earthquake. It is really a fine city of about fifty thousand inhabitants. The last serious earthquake occurred in 1835, when nearly the whole town was destroyed. It is situated on the banks of the Bio-Bio River, and has for its port Talcahuano at the mouth of that river. Talcahuano has a splendid harbour, and is better protected than Valparaiso, as it is sheltered by the island of Quiriquina. Whaling ships now leave it for the Antarctic seas and bring back considerable oil and whalebone. There is a factory here for the manufacture and refining of whale oil. It is the Chilean Annapolis, as it is the principal naval harbour, with arsenals and dockyards, and is also the site of a naval school. It will eventually be the Pacific terminus of a transcontinental railroad running to Bahia Blanca, in Argentina.