Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-11-26
ON THE UANA COAST.
Nitrate of Soda Beds and Saifpeter Mines
How They Are Marked

Nitrate of Soda Beds and Saitpeter Mines
How They Are Worked.
The coast from Callao to Valparaiso
is a panorama OF desolation. 4 con-
slant succession of bleak and barren
ellis. with not a green or lovely thing
for 1900 miles. The vessels steaming
up and down always hug the shore.
within hearing of the bark of tic sea-
hons and the screams of the water
birds. millions OF which haunt the
coast, and have covered the rocks with
the guano that 50 long enriched Peru.
Nowhere are girds and seals so numer-
Gus, and their bones and excrement,
with the dccayed fish they have carried
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 and
rain never falls. This is the guano of
commences, millions of tons OF which
have been shipped to Europe to enrich
the impoverished soil of that CONT
nent.
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 saltpeter,
being in themselves an inexhaustible
source OF revenue to their owners, and
containing enough of the material to
supply the world for thousand years.
These deposits. more profitable than
silver or guano, were discovered acci-
IDENTIFY by vagrant Englishman nam
ed George Smith, but were not operat-
ssH IN
Now nitrate, having been found a val
liable component of hundred chemi-
cal forms, Is IN demand the world over,
and millions of dollars worth is ship
ped from the ports along the coast an
nuaily. Before its value was fully
known number of farsightcd men To-
Gated ''claims, after the fashion in
vogue III mining-camps everywhere,
and thon the government stepped in
and forbid amy further presumption.
But the original locations covered
enough OF the deposit to supply the
market Tor century or two, and TO
keep up the prices they had formed
pool, monopoly combination, under
which they charge from 81 10 So per
hundred weight, that cost them about
10 cents. These owners live in London
and Paris, and count their profits,
while the mines are worked by super
intendents or administrators.
There Is apparently no limit TO the
stun, the bed stretching up and down
the coast for three hundred or four
hundred miles. The surface OF the
country is as complete a picture of des-
citation rs nature ever framed. On one
side is tho Pacific ocean, with its great
swells sweeping almost around the
globe, as regular and constant as the
throbbing OF the human pulse. On the
other side the impenetrable Andes
rise in Il range whose altitude averages
$4,000 feet, and whose peaks tower
10000 and y, coo feet above the sea.
Between the ocean and the mountains
for 1000 miles. with varying width
from 70 to so miles, lies a strip of
drifting sand which noriyers water and
where rain never falls. All the water
used by the inhabitants is taken from
the ocean, that for mechanical purpos-
es being used in its natural condition
aud that used for food being condensed
into steam and purged OF its salt by
machinery. There is not a we'll or n
spring along the coast and drinking
water is an article of merchandise, like
ice or Hour. costing about cents a
gallon to The consumer.
Under the sand OF this desert. which
drifts before the wind like snow, ma
ture 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 crust OF sun baked clay
IRON four 10 twelve inc les is removed.
This dlscioses 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,
anu averages two or three feet. II is
broken up by crowbars and shoveled
into cars, in which it is taken to crush
ers, which grind it into particles as
large as pebbles. These are lifted by
elevators into great watts, where it is
boiled until dissolved in ordinary sea
water. Then the solution is run off |
into a series of shallow iron watts, ex-
posed to the air, which. being moisture
less and heated by constant sunshine.
causes rapid evaporation. The salt
from the water, mixed with the nitrate.
causes crystalization, and, after GER
tain period of exposure to the air and
sun, the watts are found to be covered
on the bottom and sides with
white, sparkling crystals. like alabas
ter, under BLUSH, yellowish liquor.
The liquor is carefully drawn off. for it
is even more valuable than the salt
peter, and is conducted by pipes to an
other crucble, where it is boiled and
chemically treated until it produces
the iodine of commerce, useful for
hundred medical and chemical pur-
poses, and costing as much per ounce
as the saltpeter brings per hundred
weight.
The liquor having been withdrawn,
the saltpeter is shoveled upon drying
boards, where it is exposed to the sun
for time. then put into bags and ship
ped to Europe and America 1t is
graded like wheat and corn, according
to quality. The highest grade goes to
the powder-miIs, the next to the chem
ical works. and the third 10 the ferti-
iZer 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 drumhead and keep
out moisture. - atta0 Cor. Pttiadet-
phld Press.