Omaha daily bee., 1898-08-14

the most barren parts of the Rocky noun
tains and this sand and rock extend in
land almost to the tops of the Andes.
Along The coast there is a low range Of
foot hills rising in places to the height of
a mile and more above the sea. Beyond
this there is a rolling valley which runs
from north to south and on the other side
of this valley the foot hills of the Andes
begin. 1t Is along the western edge of this
valley that the nitrate is found. In some
places it is not more than fifteen miles and
in others as far as ninety miles from the
sea, but the deposits all lie along the west
ern edge of the valley, forming a strip Of
an average width of about a mile and run
ming irregularly, as 1 have said, from north
to south for a distance OF more than three
hundred miles. In some places the deposit
is four miles wide, and in others it plays
out altogether and crops out some distance
further on. In some fields the nitrate rock
lies on the top of the ground. In others it
is found from thirty to forty feet below
the surface, with a strata of salt rock on
top of it. The nitrate itself is seldom
found pure in nature, though much of the
rock contains from 40 to 60 per cent of
nitrate. The Antofagasta rock does not
contain more than II per cent of nitrate
and other fields vary with the nature of
the deposit. 1t Is the getting the nitrate
rock out of the earth and the extracting
the pure nitrate salts from it that consti-
tutes the immense industry of the pampas
or nitrate fields. AS to where the nitrate
comes from there are a number of theories.
One is that the desert was once the bed OF
an inland sea and that the nitrate came
from the decaying of the heterogeneous sea
weed. Another theory is that the ammonia
rising from the vast beds of guano on the
islands off the coast was carried by the
winds over the range of hills near the sea
and there condensed, settled and united
with other chemicals of the soil to form the
deposits and still a third is that the cleo
trical discharges of the Andes combine
with the elements of the air to make nitric
acid. This acid was carried down through
the ages in the floods of the Andes and was
deposited on these beds in the form OF
nitrate of soda. None OF these theories are
entirely satisfactory and as yet no one has
absolutely solved the problem as to whence
the nitrate comes.
How Nitrate is Mined.
We shall see how nitrate is mined by a
visit to the great pampa of Tamrugal. This
pampa or field has sixty miles of ofcinas
and nitrate fields. A railroad has been
built through 1t to carry the nitrate to the
s~eacoast at Iquique and upon it has grown
up vast factories, towns of corrugated iron
huts, in which the tens of thousands of
workmen employed in the business live and
the homes of we'll educated Europeans who
live here and manage the properties. Leav-
ing Iquique the railroad carries you up the
hills and brings you right into the nitrate
fields. You are soon in a plain about
twenty miles wide with low hills rising up
ward on the right and the left. On the
side OF this plain nearest the sea the earth
looks as though II had been plowed up by
giants and it lies In mammoth clods of all
shapes and sizes. This is the nitrate
fields which have been or are being worked.
The rest of the land is bleak, bare sand.
There is no vegetation and no sign of life
Of any kind. All is sand, salt rock, and
amid the clods nitrate rock which is called
caliche, 1t is a soluble rock Of different
colors. In some places 1t is almost white
and looks like rock salt. In others it Is
yellow and in others all shades of gray,
lemon. violet and green. The strata OF
nitrate usually lies about two feet or more
under the earth and there is often a salt
rock or conglomeraIe ABOVE IL. The method
OF getting it out is TO bore a round hole
about a foot in diameter through the upper
crust and to extend 1t town for a few
inches into the soft earth below II. Now
into this hole a boy is let down. He
scoops out q pocket for the blasting powder