Going in either direction this part is traversed at night; otherwise one might be refreshed by the sight of a little green at Calama, 149 miles from Antofagasta, at six A.M. This was a copper mining centre in Inca days and a smelter is here now. At this altitude some persons stop a day, a good plan if one is not sure of his heart; though oxygen is now carried for use in emergency. At km. 254 is a short branch, 6 miles, to Chuquicamata, to be referred to later. Just beyond the Conchi station is a graceful viaduct with six lattice girder spans of 80 feet each, supported on steel trestle towers. This, called the highest viaduct in the world, is 336 feet above the water of the Rio Loa, at an altitude of nearly 10,000 feet. Here a branch line runs to the copper mines of Conchi Viejo. At San Pedro station, 195 miles, at 10,600 feet altitude, are reservoirs blasted from the solid rock, on which the Company spent $6,000,000 to supply Antofagasta, the nitrate fields, and the railway with water. The water comes from three different places, one of them 37 miles northeast and 14,500 feet above the sea: this source capable of supplying 6000 tons of water daily through 11-inch pipes.
The road now passes two snow capped volcanoes, from one of which smoke may be rising, and crosses a stream of lava one-third of a mile wide and several miles long, to the summit of the main line, 13,000 feet. Soon after, a borax lake belonging to a British company may be seen; 24 miles long, it is the largest single deposit in the world and the chief source of the world’s supply. At Ollague, where snow storms occasionally impede traffic, is a branch to the rich copper mines at Collahuasi. The Bolivian frontier is soon afterward crossed, and at Uyuni a change is made to the broader gauge line to La Paz.
The Trans-Andine Railway. Of all the railroads of Chile, the Trans-Andine is naturally the most famous, as a part of the only trans-continental railway south of Panama; but financially, as yet it is hardly a success. With post-war increase of traffic, there will doubtless be an improvement. The Trans-Andine section of metre gauge begins at Los Andes, altitude 2723 feet, 88 miles from Valparaiso. A change is here made from the State Line, 5.5-foot gauge. It is a distance of 43 miles to the tunnel, a steep climb up the Aconcagua River Valley, with a maximum grade of 8 per cent; 20 miles of rack railway are employed. There are 25 tunnels, and on the Aconcagua River or its branches, 118 bridges. The scenery is wild and the journey delightful. Sheds have been erected against snow and land slides. Up to 1916 the road was closed for several months each winter; but with an increase of sheds and with a force of men continually digging, the road was kept open through the years 1916, ’17 and ’18; it was seriously blocked in July, 1919. While previously passenger traffic was the more remunerative, in 1916 unusual efforts were made for the benefit of important freight which it was impossible to ship by sea.
The tunnel is at a height of 10,486 feet, its length is 10,385 feet, each practically two miles. The boundary line is near the middle, each country building to that point; but the whole is operated as one line from Los Andes to Mendoza. The line was opened in the Centennial year, April 16, 1910, in time for the Exposition at Buenos Aires. The cost of the Chilian section was about $15,000,000. Operation is at a loss, interest being paid by the Government. The capitalization is $317,000 a mile. Fifteen Trans-Andine projects have been put forward, most of them for the south, one from near Puerto Montt. One in construction is from Talcahuano to Bahia Blanca by way of Temuco. A road from Punta Arenas to the Loreto coal fields is the most southern railway in the world, as that is the most southern city. The early construction is expected of an important road at the north from Salta in Argentina by Huaytiquina on the border to Antofagasta. Of wagon roads there are said to be 20,000 miles.
The Arica-La Paz Railway is described on page 222.
CHAPTER XXXII
CHILE: RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES
Although Chile is often compared to California, to which State it has some but not a close resemblance in length, partial dryness, earthquakes, and fruit, the specialty of Chile is not shared by California. Chile and nitrates are almost synonymous terms. A thought of one suggests the other. The greater part of the nitrate country earlier belonged to Peru, some also to Bolivia; and both countries still bewail their loss.
Mining
The Nitrate Fields we know are in the north, chiefly in the Provinces of Tarapacá, Antofagasta, and Atacama. If this desert land does not blossom as the rose, it produces the wherewithal to make other fields blossom, and the wealth to purchase the roses. The richest deposits are mainly along a stretch of 300 miles from Pisagua in Tarapacá, to Coquimbo. With an average width of 2¹⁄₂ miles, the fields are at a distance of from 10 to 80 miles back from the coast, and at a height of 2000-5000 feet. The deposits, which are not in continuous fields, are sometimes on the surface, but oftener overlaid with strata of earth several feet thick. The raw material called caliche contains from 20 to 65 per cent nitrate of soda. After pickling in tanks 8-12 hours, the liquid, caldo, is run off, the sand and refuse dropping to the bottom. When ready for export the article carries 15-16 per cent nitrogen and 36 per cent sodium. Commercial nitrate is a white cheese-like substance, which is used in manufacturing the highest grade of gunpowder, also to produce nitric and sulphuric acid; but the bulk of it in ordinary times is employed as a fertilizer, doubling and tripling the harvest. Within recent years the demand and in consequence the production has greatly varied, the partial recovery in 1920 being soon followed by a depression.
A by-product is a yellow liquid, which being chemically treated leaves a blue crystal, iodine, which costs as much an ounce as saltpetre per 100 pounds. Being worth $700-$800 a cask it is shipped in treasure vaults with bullion. The nitrate establishments called oficinas provide good salaries, and the best possible quarters for their officials, and they are interesting to visit. As a mineral, the nitrate is distinguished from guano although believed by some to have the same origin. British companies have long been engaged in this industry. American interests have more recently acquired holdings. The Du Ponts have three properties covering 14,000 acres.