The Penn's Grove record., 1885-08-08
on the eunno coast.

a a panorama Of desolaiion, q constant
,~uccessiou OF bleak and barren cliffs,
Eith not a green or lovely thing for
L5O0 miles. The vessels steanling up
md down always hug the shore,
githin hearing of the bark of the sea
ions and the screams of the water
birds. millions Of which haunt the
coast. and have covered the rocks with
The guauo that so long enriched Peru.
Nowhere are birds and seals so nu'
uerous, and their bones and excrement,
with the decayed fish they have car.
ried upon the rocks, are often found
In masses hundreds of feet deep,
baked hard like clay. in a region where
the sun shines twelve hours each day,
md rain never fails. This is the gu
ano of commerce, millions Of tons OF
which have been shipped to Europe to
enrich the impoverished soil OF that
sentiment.
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 10 themselves an inexhaustl0le
source of revenue to their owners, n
containing enough of the material to
simply the world for a thousand years.
These deposits, more profitable than
silver or Qdano were discovered acct
deptaTy by a vagrant Englishman
named George Smith, but were not OPP
Grated to any extent until recent years.
Now nitrate, having been found a valu
able component of a hundred chemical
forms. It is in demand the world over,
and millions of dollars worth are
shipped from the ports along the coast
annually. Before its value was fully
known a number OF farsighted men To-
Gated ''claims," after the fashion in
vogue in mining camps everywhere,
aud then the government stepped III
and forbade any further presumption.
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 mo
nopolv combination, under which they
charge from 81 to SO per hundred
weight. Tor what costs them about 10 cts.
These owners live in London and Paris,
and count their profits, while the mines
are worked hv superintendent or lad
minist atOIs.'
There Is apparently no limit to the
stuff. the bed stretching mp and down
the coast for 500 or 400 miles. The
surface of the country is as complete q
pitture Of desolation as nature ever
framed. Ga Cne side ID the Pacific
ocean, with its great swells sweeping
almost around the globe, rs regular and
constant as the throbbings of the hui
man pulse. On the other side the i'm
pepetrabIe Andes rise in a range whose
altitude averages Is, 900 feet, and whose
peaks tower 20, 600 and %, 900 feet above
the sea, Between the ocean and the
mountains for 1000 miles, with a vary
ing width of from twenty to fifty miles,
lies a strip of drifting sand. which no
rivers water and where rain never falls.
All the water used by the inhabitants
ia taken from the ocean, that for me-.
chanical purposes being used in its nat
uraI condition, and that used for food
beng condensed into steam and purged
of its salt by machinery. There is not
a well or q spring along the coast, ard
drink water is an article OF merchan-
disc. like ice or flour, costing about
cents a gallon to the consumer.
Under the sand of this desert. which
drifts before 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 shoyeled off, and hen q
crust of suu-baked clay from four to
twelve inches Is removed. This dis
closes a bed of white material that
looks like melting marble, full Of moist
ure. and as soft as cheese. The
stratum is often four or five feet thick,
and averages two or three feet. 1t II
broken up by cr0wbars and shoveled
into cars, in which it is taken to
crushers, which grind it up into parti.
Giles as large as pebbles. These are
lifted by elevators into great watts,
where 1t is boiled until dissolved i'll
ordinary sea water. Then the solution
is run off into a series of shallow iron
watts, exposed to the air, which, being
m~oistureless and heated by constant
sunshine, causes rapid evaporation.
The salt nom the water, mixed with the
nitrate, causes Capitalization, and,
after a certain period Of exposure to
the air and sun, the watts are found to
be covered upon the bottom and the
sides with white, sparkling crystals,
like alabaster, under a blush, yellow
ish liquor. This liquor is carefully
drawn off, for it is even more valuable
than the saltpetre, and is conducted 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 pei
ounce as the saltpetre brings per hund.
red weight.
The liquor having been withdrawn,
the saItpere is shOveled upon drying.
boards, where it is exposed to the sun
for a time, then put in 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 chem
ical works, and tine third to the fertil.
izer factories, where 1t is made into
manure. The iodine is packed in little
casks and covered with green hides,
winch shrink with drying until they
are as tight as a drumhead and keep
out moisture.