The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-03-22

nitrate companies were compelled to sus-
pend work entirely, to their own ruin and
the suffering of hundreds of poor families,
and the loss to Chili's treasury at critical
time when she can Ill afford it.
Perhaps the greatest natural curiosity on
the southern continenti is this inexhaustiole
deposite 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-everywhere an arid range of
hills from
FOUR TO SIX THOUSAND FEET HIGH,
rising abruptly out of the Pacific, backed
by a desert pdmpd (plain) from fifty TO one
hundred miles wide, which gradually as
cends TO the foot of the snowy Cordillera.
Nowhere else in the world except in this
particular pdmpd are nitrates found IN
quantities worth mentioning. And here
they exist under variable conditions. For
example, in that part of the desert known
as the Pampd Tdmarugal-where all the
great English companies have their facto-
ries and the British public has millions of
pounds sterling invested = the deposit is
found only on the seaward edge OF the des-
ert on the first slopes of the coast range.
In the Noria district they lie in the most
depressed portion of the plain, in kind OF
basin between the hills; and above Anto-
fogasta they line the sides of a dry river
bed
But everywhere the Pampa presents the
same desert type. That above Iquiqui de-
rives its name from the tdmdrugdl bushes
with which it is sparely covered. Further
north, above Tarapaca, the bold features
of the Cordillera add some beauty to the
landscape; while inside from Autofogasto,
in the great desert of Atacama, there is not
even distant mountain to be seen
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 dis
tinctly vfbrates, and blue mirage lakes tan
taliZe the thirsty traveller. One can scarcely
bear to touch the scorching sand, at $50 de-
grees, and light south wind continually
raises whirlwinds of dust IN every direc-
ton. Neither bird, beast or plant of the
lowest type can live in these barren wastes;
and yet their hidden wealth has led to the
creation OF several villages, whose every
necessary of life is brought from long dis
lance.
A few years ago water sold on the Alta
CANA desert for $40 the dTrObd, or about
81 80 per gallon, and drink for mule cost
fifteen English shillings. Finally, at a
place in the desert called Carmen Alto, a
sun condenser, with 5000 square feet of
glass, was employed to distil fresh water
from that of the sea. This was afterwards
wrecked by whirlwind; but a smaller APP
paratus, ON the same principle, is now
being worked at Sierra Gordo, and realizes
handsome profit, though the water sells
for only thirty cents the drrobd. Most of
the coast towns and inland factories are
now supplied by means of condensed steam,
SOME OF THE CoNDENsERs
producing no less than twenty-five tons of
good water for every ton Of coal burned in
the boilers. More recent schemes have
been started for supplying the coast towns
with water by the means of pipes, running
across the desert from springs at the foot
of the mountains. Iquiqui, Taltal, Antofo-
! gasta and Mollendo are supplied in this
manner, and other similar aQueducts are
being constructed.
Before Europeans came here this region
was almost uninhabited. Two or three
hundred Changes Indians, who live by fish,
! ing, still prowl along the face OF the coast
range, but until recently they had no idea
there was anything of value in their terri
tory. In the district of Tarapaca, and on
the Tamarugal pampa the Aymara language
is universally spoken, and all the place
names are in that tongue-such as Paccha,
JAZZ Pampa, Puntunchara, etc. In the An
tofogasta and Taltal regions, the Indian.
speak only Quichua, though they lie furthe,
from the home of that language. Most o.
the laborers are Bolivians, from the neigh
borhood of Cochabamba, where Qulchaa is
universally spoken. These men chew coca
and entertain all the strange superstition,
of their brothers in Bolivia.
THE PORTION OF THE PAMPA
in which English speaking people are mos
interested, is that lying between Iquiqu
and Pisagua-the celebrated ''Tamaruga
pampa," where lie the Tarapaca beds. Tn,
encompassing Sierra Huatacondo have thei
barren slopes intersected by quebrada
(breaks), or narrow valleys, each of which
brings down small stream of water, to b,
eventually lost in the sandy desert B,
the side Of each little river, irrigation at
fords sustenance to scanty population
but there is only one village of importanc
that of Tarapaca, in the valley of tn
same name, which includes the province con
tanning Iquiqui, whore colony of northern
Nitrate Kings" have accumulated thei
millions. A high, chilly upland, abou
} twenty miles across, separates the cute
Sierra of Huatacondo from the highe
range OF the Cordillera; and then the An
des slope sharply down to the plateau o
Bolivia, 1900 feet above the sea- TIL
: crests of the seward mountains retain u
snow during the summer months. but thos
of the inner Cordillera remain whit
throughout the year.
The tamarugal shrubs that grow in place
, on the Pampa, owe their existence to til
floods which every few years rush
DOWN FROM THE ANDES
and run almost to the edge Of the nitrat
grounds OF course one good overflow, @
shower bath, would ruin all the nitrate
but as the region is entirely rainless, ther
is no danger of either. The surface of th
= desert is not sharp sand, but dry cart
mixed with a certain proportion of sand
particles, and irrigation would turn ever
7 rod of it into fertile plain. Whereve
wells have been sunk, alternate layers {
gravel sand and mud are disclosed, eac
series of layers representing the sequenc
of single flood IN former ages: hence
/ follows that in times long past the pamp
+ must have been subject to periodical inuI
> dations. Water may be found anywher,
at the depth of from so to $50 feet; but n
| place has yet been discovered where th
conditions necessary for artesian wells al
/ fulfilled. Strange to say, the undergroun
waters of the pampa do not contain tn
, slightest trace of either nitrate of soda {
iodine, though they hold greater proper
t ton of mineral salts toe farther westwar
they run. In the middle of the desert tn
water contains too much salt to be drink
able: that near the western margin (br
5 not in the nitre beds), belongs
TO THE CALoAREo- MAGNEsIA CLASS
: and is totally unfit for domestic and Gull,
' airy purposes.
: 1t is commonly promulgated fiction tn;
= the subterranean water of the Tamarug
, plain is the overflow from far-away Lax
) Titicaca that has somehow filtered undo
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