Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1891-05-22
CHILEAN NITRATE MINES
GREATEST NATURAL CURIOSITY
ON THE SOUTHERN CONTINENT.
Interesting Facts Concerning This
Very Valuable Commoditity-Tho
Supply IuexhaustibIe

supply luexhouSt1Dle.
When we first saw Iquique pronounced
E-kce-kee), little more than half year
ago, writes Fannie B. Ward, it was one
of the most peaceful and prosperous
cities Of Chile-a seaport second only to
VALPARAISO in population and commercial
importance, in wide contrast to the
burned and battered ruin the rebels made
OF it on their recent raid. 1t has long
been the great shipping point of tho
world for nitrate of Soda vast bust
ness, practically controlled by English
capital; and therefore in the eyes of
Englishmen Iquique is of more conse.
qucnce than all the rest of Chile put to-
gether.
For moro than year past the nitrate
people have been doing little profitable
business, principally ON account of the
Government troubles and consequent
strikes among the lahorers, aud also be-
cause the English market is overstocked
with the ccmpodity, and therefore its
price is correspondingly low. From this
nitrate industry alone the Chilean Gov
ernment has been collecting revenue
of about $50, 900, 900 per anuum in ex-
port duties.
Perhaps the greatest natural curiosity
on tho Southern Continent is this mex
haustible deposit of nitrate of soda. Beds
of it are strewn along the western coast
for five hundred miles; and throughout
all that distance the physical aspect of
the country is the same-evcrywhere an
arid range of hills from four to six thou
sand feet high, rising abruptly out of the
Pacific, backed by desert pampa iplain)
from fifty to one hundred miles wide,
which gradually ascends to the foot of
the snowy Cordillera. Nowhere else in
the world except in this particular pampa
are nitrates found in. quantities worth
mentioning.
The pampa above Iquiqui derives its
namc from tho tamarugal bushes with
which it is sparsely covered. Further
north, above Tarapaca, the bold features
of the Cordillera and some beauty to the
landscape; while inside from Antofo-
gasta, in the great desert of Atacama.
there is not even distant mountain to
be scen--nothing but brown sand as far
as the eye can reach. There is no cloud
on the FURNISHED sky to temper the rays
of the vertical sun; the hot air distinct
ly vibrates, and blue mirage lakes tan
talizo the thif sty traveller. One can
scarcely bear totouch the searching sand,
at 100 degrees, and light south wind
continually raises whirlwinds of dust in
every direction, Neither bird, beast nor
plant of the lowest type can live in these
barren wastes; and yet their hidden
wealth has led to the creation of several
villages, whosi every necessary of life is
brought from long distance.
few yearshgo water sold on the Alta
cana desert fq 500 the arroba, or about
$3.50 per galbn, and drink for mule
cost fifteen sh llings, or S3.75. Finally,
at place in ihe desert called Carmen
Alto, o sun Condenser with 80, 900 square
feet of 81 iss was employed to
distil fresh water from that of
the sea. This was aftcrward
wrecked by whirlwind, but smaller
apparatus on the same principle is now
being workel at Sierra Gordo, and re-
allies q handsome profit, though the
water sells for only thirty cents the
arroba. Mot of the coast towns and in
land factori$ arc now supplied by means
of condensel steam, some of the con-
densers producing no less than twenty
five tons of good water for every ton of
coal burned lin the boilers. More recent
schemes haze been started for supplying
the coast to Fns with water by means of
pipes running across the desert from
springs at Ehe foot of the mountains.
Tquiqui, Tidal, Antofogasta and Mol
lendo arc npplied in this manner, and
other simihr aqueducts arc being con-
structed.
The potion of the psmpa in which
Notwithstanding people are most inter.
ested is tht lying between Iquiqui and
Pisagua- he celebrates "Tamarugal
Pampa," There lie the Tarapaca beds
and wher colony of Northern "Nitrate
Kings" h We accumulated their millions.
high, chilly upland, about twenty
miles acrSs, separates the outer Sierra of
Huatacortio from the higher range of the
CordilleI {; and then the Andes slope
sharply own to the plateau of Bolivia,
$4,000 det above the sea.
The strface of the desert is not sharp
sand, BIT dry earth mixed with q certain
pToportRn of sandy particles, and irri-
CATION I uld turn every rod Of It into q
fertile plain. Wherever wells have
been suIll, alternate layers of gravel,
sand AMI mud are disclosed, each series
Of layer representing the sequence of
single fbod in former ages; hence it fol-
lows thIt in times long past the pampa
must h$e been subject to periodical in
undatids. Water may be found almost
anywhFe, at the depth of from fifty to
$50 fef; but no place has yet been dis
coverc where the conditions necessary
for artisan wells are fulfilled.--IAila-
aelpAi@ Record.