Omaha daily bee., 1898-08-28

written Of the nitrate fields, which
have already produced hundreds Of
millions of dollars, and which have
supply which cannot be exhausted for
half century to come. A member of the
Chilian congress, Senor Roberto Edwardson
| Meeks, with whom I talked last night, tells
| me that there are deposits OF guano near the
! nitrate beds which surpass those of the
| islands of Peru and which are worth thou
sands of millions of dollars. He says they
| lie several feet below the surface and that
| they are on the mainland All of north
| Chilli is full Of minerals. In coming to VAL
| paraiso stopped at number of ports which
have copper and silver smelling works. At
! Antofagasta there is a smelter which is said
to be the largest in the world. 1t is used to
smelt the ores of only one mining company
and when l visited it l saw several acres
covered with bricks of silver ore which had
been ground to dust and put into this shape
that they might be the more easily smelted
That is perhaps the most valuable brick
| yard on EARTH At Iquique there is smelter
which belongs to an American, Mr.. George
Chase. He comes, ! think, from New York
, and he has, l am told, some of the most
valuable silver mines in South America. The
ore is almost pure The mines are so profit
able that they have made him rich, and have,
am told, netted him so much that he has
laid aside 100000 ($15,O0O, OOO) as a re-
serve fund in the Bank of England. This
seems to me big story, but there is no
doubt that Mr.. Chase is worth his millions
One of the chief copper ports of Chill is
Coquimbo, town of 1000 people, lying on
beautiful bay about 1870 miles north OF Val
paraiso. 1t is in the center of one of
the richest copper deposits of the world.
oil 10
mine owners tell me that there are almost
inexhaustibe quantities of it. Chill has
already produced about four billion pounds
of copper. In 1896 it shipped about so, ,OOO,-
900 pounds, but the most of this went to
Europe, as we have all the copper we need
OF our own. From Coquimbo they are now
exporting something like 1000 tons of cop
per month and several smelters are kept
busy turning the ore into bars. Chilli has
also large deposits of iron. manganese,
quicksilver and lead There are a number
of gold mines in the south, and much gold
washing is done in the streams of Terra
del Fuego. There is also gold in the north
and am told that a large part of the noun
tains have not been well prospected, and
that the mines so far developed have been
worked after the most wasteful methods, so
that the waste ore on the dumps could be
smeted with profit. AS to the agricultural
condition OF the country, / will write after
/ have visited some of the great haciendas
The central valley, which lies between the
range Of mountains that borders the coast
and the main range of the Andes, is 500
miles long, and it is divided up into vast
estates, upon which all sorts of fruits and
cereals are grown. Chill produces more
than 2SOOO 600 bushels OF wheat a year, and
she ships her products to the other coun-
tries of this part Of the world by the thou
sands OF tons. 1t has thousands Of acres
OF vineyards and exports a great deal OF
wine. The cattle consumed at most of the
coast ports come from Chill, and the best
horses to be found in South America are
Chilan bred. FRANK G.. CARPENTER.