The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-17
ON THE GUANO COAST.
Nitrate of Soda Beds and Saltpetre Mines
How They Are Worked.


CalIao Correspondence Philadelphia Press.
The coast from Callao to Valparaiso is pano-
rama OF desolation, constant succession of
bleak and barren cliffs with not green or lovely
thing for 500 miles. The vessels steaming up
and down always hug the shore, within hearing
OF the bark of the sea lions and the screams of
the water-birds, millions of which haunt the
coast, and have covered the rocks with the gUano
that so long enriched Peru. Nowhere are birds
and seals so numerous and their bones and ex-
crement, with the decayed fish they have carried
upon the rocks, are often found IN masses hun
dreds 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 salt
petre, being in themselves an inexhaustible
source Of revenue to their owners, and contain
ing enough of the material to supply the world
for a thousand years. These deposits, more
profitable than silver or guano, were discovered
accldently by vagrant Englishman named
George Smith, but were not operated to any eX-
tent until recent years. Now nitrate, having
been found valuable component of a hundred
chemical forms. it is in demand the world over,
and millions Of dollars worth is shipped from the
ports along the coast annually. Before its value
was fully known a number of farsighted men
located claims" after the fashion in vogue in
mining camps everywhere, and then the govern
ment stepped in and forbid any further pre-
emption 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 formed a pool, a monopoly combination,
under which they charge from So to So per hun
dred weight that costs them about 10 cents
These owners live in London and Paris, and
count their profits while the mines are worked
by superintendent or administrators
There is apparently no limit to the stuff, the
bed stretching up ard down the coast for 300 or
400 miles. The surface of the country is as COM
plete a 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 throbbngs
of the human pulse On the other side the i'm
penetrable Andes rise in a range whose altitude
averages $4,000 feet, and whose peaks tower
20, 900 and %, 900 feet above the sea. Between
the ocean and the mountains for 1000 miles,
with varying width from twenty to fifty miles,
lies strip of drifting sand which no rivers
water and where rain never falls. Al! the water
used by the inhabitants is taken from the ocean,
that for mechanical purposes being used in it's
natural condition, and that used for food being
condensed into steam and purged of it's salt by
machinery. There is not a we'll or spring along
the coast, and drink water is all article of mer-
chandlse, like ice or -four costing about seven
cents gallon to the consumer.
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 ex-
tent. The sand is first sboveled off, and then
crust of sun baked clay from four to twelve
inches is removed. This dscoses a bed of
white material that looks like melting marble,
full of moisture, and as soft as cheese. The
stratum is often four or FIVE feet thick and
averages two three feet. 1t is broken up by
crowoars and shoveled into cars, in which it is
taken to crushers, which grind it up into par
ticles as large as pebbles. These are lifted by
elevators into great watts. where it is boiled until
dissolved in ordinary sea water Then the solu-
ton is run off into series Of shallow iron watts
exposed to the air, which, being moistureless and
heated by constant sunshine, causes rapid evap-
grafton. The salt from the water mixed with
the nitrate, causes crystalization, and, after
certain period of exposure to the air and sun,
the watts are found to be covered upon the bot
tom and the sides with white, sparkling crystals,
like aabaster, under blush, yeliowish liquor.
This liquor is carefully drawn off, for it is even
more valuable than the saltpetre, and is con-
Quoted by pipes to another crucible, where it is
boiled and chemically treated until it produces
the Iodine of commerce, useful for a hundred
medical and chemical purposes, and costing as
much per ounce as the saltpetre brings per hun
dred weight
The liquor having been withdrawn, the salt
IS exposed to the sun for time, then put into
bags and shipped to Europe and America. 1t is
graded like wheat and corn, according to quality.
The highest grade goes to the powder
mills the next to the chemical works and the
third to the fertilizer factories where it is made
into manure. The iodine is packed in little
casks and covered with green hides. which
shrink with drying until they are as tight as
drunlhead and keep out moisture.