The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-08-28
people of the semi-tropical lands of the
LoNGEsT OF COUNTRIES.

nOTUn.
LONGEST OF COUNTRIES.
Ny voyage down the coast of Chile
gave me some idea of the enormous
length of the country. 1 spent live
days in coming by steamer from the
nitrate fields to Valparaiso. and the
German ship on which | shall sail
within few weeks for TERRA del Flu
ego will require nine days to reach
Punta Arenas, on the Straits of Magel-
Ian. Chile is more like a long-drawn-
sausage or a worm than any other
country of the world The only land
that compares with it is Egypt, which
drags it's weary length for more than
a Thousand miles between deserts along
the valley of the Nile. Chile begins i'll
a desert and continues in it for more
than a thousand miles. Later Oh it
bursts out into a green valley between
high mountains, and ends in the grassy
islands Of the southernmost part Of
this hemisphere. 1t is nowhere over
200 miles wide, and in some places It
is not more than fifty, but it Is so long
that If 1t were laid upon the face of
the United States, beginning at New
York, it would make a wide track
across 1t to far beyond Salt Lake, and
if it could be stretched from south to
north, with TERRA del Fuego at the
lowermost edge Of Florida, its upper
provinces would be found In Hudson
bay, almost even with the topsof Lab
rador. Chile is 1900 miles long. 1t en-
braces all of the land between the tops
Of the Andes and t1le Pacific ocean
south Of the River Sama, which di
vides it from Peru, and it has, in ad
dftion, most of the islands about the
Straits Of Magellan. The question as
to just where the boundary Of Chile
and the Argentine Republic lies is ono
of dispute between the two countries,
and one which promises to bring about
a war sooner or later. Just now the re-
lations Of the Chileans and the Arger-
tines are strained almost to breaking,
and no one knows how soon war may
result OF this, however, l will write
in the future
WINTER IN CHILE.
A land Of this kind must be one Of
many climates. 1t is now winter on
this siGlo of the equator, but [ found
1t quite warm in the north. Here at
Valparaiso one needs an overcoat when
the sun is not shining, and at the
Straits of Magellan am told that the
ground Is now covered with snow and
that night begins at o'clock in the
afternoon. During my travels In West
ern Peru and Bolivia weeks passed
without a drop of rain. 1t never rains
in Northern Chile, and everything in
the cities there visited was as dry as
Sahara. The great question in most
of the towns along the coast is where
more than 100 miles long. At Iquique
Peru, a little above the Chilean border,
the water supply comes from the Andes
near Arequipa through an iron pipe
more than 100 miles long. At Iquipue
water is piped more than eighty miles,
and Antofagasta gets its drinking
water away up in the Andes 1870 miles
back from the coast. This Antofagasta
aqueduct Is, I believe, the longest IN
the world. In coming from Bolivia
down to the sea I visited the great
reservoir within a stones throw Of
dead volcano down the sides Of which
this mountain water flows and rode on
the cars for almost day over a thirsty
desert along the line Of the aqueduct.
At other ports I found them selling
water. This Is the case in many Of
the nitrate settlements. The steam
from the engines of the nitrate fac
tories is condensed. and there are en-
gines used solely for making drinkable
water from that of the sea. AS you
sail from this desert region south you
now and then pass valleys in which
little river from the Andes makes ev-
erything green, but it is not until you
reach Valparaiso that the RAINFALL Is
heavy enough to cover the whole coun-
try with verdure. Further south of
here the rains steadily increase until
at distance Of 300 or 400 miles you
come into territory where the people
facetiously say that 1T rains thirteen
months every year. At Port Montt,
in South Chile, the rainfall is 118 inches
every twelve months, and here it is
only fifteen. In this part of the coun-
try and In the northern part Of the
central valley the climate is much like
that Of Southern California. The skies
are bright for at least eight months,
and during the remainder Of the year
there are only occasional showers. This