Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-09-10
Oh VIE GUANO COAST.
Nitrate of Soda Beds and SaItpetre
Mfnes-How They are w Worked.
Phila1alrhla Tinnac

cliffs, with not green or lovely thing
for l, 500 miles. The vessels steaming
up and down always hug the shere,
within hearing of che bark Of the sea-
lions and the screams of the water
birds, millions of which haunt the
coast, and have covered the rocks
with guano that SO long enriched
Peru. Nowhere are birds and seals SO
numerous, and their bones and excre>
ment, with the decayed fish they have
carried upon the rocks, are often
found in masses hundreds of feet
deep, baked hard like clay, IN region
where the sun shines twelve hours
each day and rain never falls. This
is the guano of commerce, millions of
tons Of which have been shipped to
Europe to enrich the impoverished
soil of that continent.
Within the coast from ten to fifty
miles, and stretching for hundreds of
miles, are the famous beds of nitrate
of soda, which. purified, is saltpetre,
being in Themselves an exhaustible
source of revenue to their owners,
and containing enough of the mas
terial to supply the world for thou
sand years. These deposits, more
profitable than silver or guano, were
discovered accidentally by a vagrant
Englishman named George Smith,
but were not operated to any extent
until recent years. Now nitrate, hay
ing been found vauble component
of a hundred chemical forms, is Ia de-
mand the world over, and millions Of
dollars worth is shipped from the ports
along the coast annually. Before It's
value was fully known a number of
farsighted men located claims" after
the fashion in vogue IN mining camps
everywhere, and the. the government
stepped IN and forbid any further pre-
e. ption. But the original locations
cover enough of the deposit to supply
the market for a century or two, and
to keep up the prices they have forms
ed a pool, monopoly combination,
under which they charge from 50 to S.
per hundred weight, that cost them
about Is cent. These owners live in
London and Paris, and count their
profits, while the mines are worked
by superintendent or "administra>
tors"
There is apparently no limit to the
stuff, the bed stretching up and down
the coast for three Or four hundred
miles. The surface of the country is
as complete picture of desolation as
nature ever framed. On one side is
the Pacific ocean, with its great swells
sweeping almost around the globe, as
regular and constant as the trobbiDg
IF n 10
side the lmpenetrable Andes rise Ia q
range whose altitude average 15, 600
feet and whose peaks tower 20 600 and
%, 900 feet above the sea. Between
the ocean and the mountains for 1, 900
miles, width from 90 to SO miles, lies
strip of drifting sand which no rivers
water and where rain never fall. All
the water used by the inhabitants is
taken from the ocean, that for me-
chanical purposes being used IN its
stural condition and that used for
food being condensed into steam and
purged of it, salt by machinery. There
is not well or spring along the
coast, and drinking water is an article
of merchandise, ike ice or flour, cost
ing about z cents a gallon to the con-
sumner.
Under the sand OF this desert, which
drifts before the wind like snow,
nature has laid the bed Of nitrate. No
one knows how it was formed, and
man has not attempted to measure its
extent. The sand is first sheveled off,
and then a of sun-baked clay from
four to twelve inches is removed
This discloses bed of white material
that looks like melted marble, full of
moisture, and as soft as cheese. The
stratum is often four Or five feet
It is broken up by crowbars and
showeled into cars, In which it is taken
to crushers, which grind it into rar>
ticles as small as pebbles. These are
lifted oy elevators into great watts,
where 1t is boiled until dissolved in
ordinary sea water. Then the solu~
luton is run off into series of shall
low iron watts, exposed to the air,
which, being moistureless and heated
by constant sunshine, causes rapid
evaporation. The salt from the water,
mixed with the nitrate, causes crys~
talization. and, after certain period
of exposure to the air and sun, the
watts are found to be covered on the
bottom and the sides with white,
sparkling crystals, like alabaster,
under blush, yellowish liquor. The
liquor is carefully drawn off, for it is
even moro valuable than the saltpetre,
and is conducted by pipes to another
crucible, where 1t is boiled and
chemically treated until it produces
the iodine of commerce, useful for a
hundred medical and chemical pur-
poses. and costing as much per ounce
as the salpetre brings per hundred
weigh.
The liquor having been withdrawn,
the saltpetre Is shLveled upon drying
boards where it is exposed to the sun
for time, then put into bags and
shipped to Europe and America. It
is graded ike wheat and corn, accord
ing to qualify. The highest grade
gees to the powder mills, the next to
the chemical-works, and the third 10
the fertilizer. factories, where it is
made into roan1rra The iodine Is