Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-09-10
on THE A COAST.
Nitrate of soda BEDS and Saltpetre
mines-How They are worked.
Philadelphia Times

up and down Away mug 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 guano that so long enriched
Peru. Nowhere are birds and seals so
numerous, and their bones ia 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 q 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 a thou
sand years. These deposits, more
profitable than silver or guano, were
discovered accidentally by a vagrant
Englishmsn named George Smith,
but were not operated to any extent
until recent years. Now nitrate, hay
ing been found a vauble component
of a hundred chemical forms, is in de-
mand 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
farsightcd men located ''claims," after
the fashion in vogue ir mining camps
every where, and thec the government
stepped in aud forbid any further pre-
enaption. 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 form
ed a pool, a monopoly combination,
under which they charge from 81 to So
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 administers
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 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 trobbing
of the human pulse. Ga the other
side the Impenetrable Andes rise in a
range whose altitude average Is, coo
feet and whose peaks tower 20, 900 and
%, 600 feet above the sea. Between
the ocean and the mountains for 200
miles, width from 90 to so miles, lies
a 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
natural condition and that used for
food being condensed into steam and
purged of IT. salt by machinery. There
is not a we'll or a spring along the
coast, and drinking water is an article
of merchandise, like 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 shOveled off,
and then a of sun-baked clay from
four to twelve inches is removed.
This discloses a 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
thick, and average two or three feet.
1t is broken up by crowbars and
showeled into cars, in which it is taken
to c~rushers, which grind it iato rar-
ticles as small as pebbles. These are
lifted by elevators into great watts,
where 1t is boiled until dissolved in
ordinary sea water. Then the soluS
| luton is run off into a 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'
tsltzation, and, after a 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 a blush, yellowlsh liquor. Inc
| liquor is carefully drawn Oft, for 1t 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 sh1 veled upon drying
boards where it is exposed to the sun
for a time, then put into bags and
shipped to Europe and America, 1t
is graded like wheat aud corn, accord
ing to quality. The highest grade
goes to the powder>mills, the next to
the acknowledgements, and the third TO.
the fertilizer factories, where II is
made into manure. The iodine is
packed in little casks and covered