The Mineral and Agricultural zone may be defined as a section of semi-mountainous, sparsely watered country, extending north from Santiago, to the mineral zone. There are within the territory a number of small streams extending from the mountains to the sea, in the valleys of which are small farms, called “fundos.” There are few towns of any consequence in that part of the country, no railways, few improved roads, and communication between the coast and interior is slow and difficult. Mule and burro trains are the common method of transportation, while more rapid communication is made on horseback.
The Agricultural, or central zone is the garden of Chile. It includes twelve provinces, extending from Aconcagua on the north to the river Bio Bio on the south, with an area of 75,000 square miles, and a population of 1,800,000. About eighty per cent. of the people living in this zone are engaged either directly or indirectly in agricultural pursuits. In the northern part of this geographical division is Valparaiso, the most important commercial center in the Republic; in the center is Santiago, the beautiful capital city, and in the south, situated on the Bio Bio is Concepcion, the third city in population and importance in the country. In this section there is a copious rainfall between the months of May and September, and consequently a prolific growth of vegetation. Between the mountain ranges and hills that crowd close down to the sea, are beautiful valleys, where wheat, maize, barley, flax, oats, rye, all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and a variety of grasses grow and mature well. From Santiago, extending several hundred miles south are wide fertile valleys, high and low table-lands, wonderfully productive and in a splendid state of cultivation. This central valley of Chile, lying between the Andes and the coast range, is a continuous garden of luxuriant beauty. The cultivated loveliness of the private estates, which surround the capital, offer a pleasing contrast to the sterner grandeur of mountain forms and color with which it is enclosed. There are to be found the ideal South American haciendas, where thousands of acres are included in one domain, where the primitive system of cultivating the land, introduced by the Spaniards when they came to the western world, with few exceptions, still prevails. There is the one storied castle-like residence of the proprietor, with its wide verandas, roomy corridors, rambling rooms and beautiful patio. The house is often surrounded by a magnificent garden and park, where graceful palms, beautiful trees and brilliant flowers in great variety grow and bloom the year round. There too, are vast herds of horses, cattle and other domestic animals, all fat and sleek from feeding upon the rich pasturage of irrigated “potreros” (fields). Farther south in this zone, the semi-tropical appearance of the northern regions give place to wood-crowned hills and streams fringed with forest trees. Rains are more frequent and the growth of vegetation more general and prolific. Vast farms extend in every direction. Stolid oxen, drawing primitive plows or carts, plod through fallow fields, and the mountains, which are always in sight, give up their solitude in scenes of domesticity and peaceful industry.
The wooded or southern zone, includes all the territory from the river Bio Bio, south to Cape Horn, and forms the least developed portion of Chile. In the southern provinces are vast virgin forests, rich in varied resources, awaiting commercial development. In some sections of the country the forests, overrun with creepers, are so dense that they form an almost impenetrable jungle, where the sunlight never penetrates, and where twilight lingers throughout the entire day. In these forests are various woods of excellent quality, including oak, cypress, lingue (the bark of which makes excellent tanning material), rauli, redwood, laurel, resin pine, poplar, and quillai, the bark of which is exported in large quantities, and is used as a mordant for dyeing.
Sawmills have been established in recent years, and are now in operation in the timber districts of southern Chile, but the lumber industry, which promises to become one of the important commercial interests of the country, is only in its infancy. In fact the mills have so far made practically no impression upon the forests, their cuttings being limited to choice timber along the streams and water-ways where transportation facilities are good.
In addition to the valuable timber interests and great agricultural resources of southern Chile, it possesses large deposits of coal, gold, iron ores, Portland cement, roofing slate and other minerals, awaiting development. On the plains and in the valleys luxuriant vegetation develops annually and remains to enrich the soil for the use of future generations. Unexplored hills and mountains, hoarding a wealth of minerals, await the ambitious prospector and industrious miner. In the sands of Tierra del Fuego is gold to gladden the hearts of men, and the forests contain material for lumber sufficient to supply the demands of the continent. In this subdivision there are also extensive fisheries and oyster beds. Along the coast, rugged hills that reach down to the sea are covered with forest trees, and on the Cordilleras near the southern limits of the continent, vegetation extends up to an altitude where virgin snows and verdant green meet and mingle in strange contrast. In the mountain and forest solitudes of this undeveloped region, are many lakes, resting like emerald settings in the landscape. Viewed from the sea the scenery along the coast of southern Chile presents a picturesque appearance. The Andes Mountains, grand and imposing, form a splendid background for the verdant forests forming the shore line. This range of mountains constitutes a conspicuous physical feature of the continent. To the south it crowds close upon the Pacific, and throughout the length of Chile the Cordilleras cover a double series of highly elevated summits enclosing longitudinal valleys within the region of perpetual snow. On the western range there are three smaller mid-land mountain chains called the “Cordillera Maritima,” running parallel with the Andean, between which are numerous well-watered valleys possessing a delightfully equable climate. From any of these valleys the giant peaks of the Andes, royally crowned and ermine robed are plainly visible. And as the day-god rides over them, touching their white crests with fingers of gold, the scenes presented are wonderful in variety and spectacular effect.
RIVERS AND WATERWAYS.
The rivers in Chile all have their source in the Andes and empty into the Pacific. Unvexed by fretting wheels of commerce, they flow peacefully on from mountains to the sea. The distance being short and the declivity great, the current of the streams is swift, affording excellent power for manufacturing purposes. Sometimes in the rainy season, when the rivers are flushed from excessive rains, or in summer when their waters are augmented by melting snows, they become raging torrents, sweeping everything before them, frequently causing much loss of life and great damage to property. Among the more important rivers in Chile are the Aconcagua, Mapocho, Maipo, Cachapoal, Tinguiririca, Teno, Lontue, Mataquito, Rapel, Claro, Maule, Nuble, and Bio Bio. Some of these rivers are navigable for light-draft vessels for a short distance from the sea, but the winding course of the streams, irregular depth of water and the swift current make traffic unsafe, impracticable and unprofitable. The most peculiar and complicated river system on the continent is formed by the converging of the numerous streams that empty into the bay of Corral, near Valdivia. In some places as many as four rivers converge at one point. The scenery along these rivers presents a panorama of constantly changing views. Wooded hills rise abruptly along the banks, and in many places trees lean out over the streams, in the crystal waters of which are reflected their inverted images. Islands, overrun with creepers and brilliant with the scarlet bloom of coiphues and fuchsias, and the yellow hues of goldenrod, are some of the features of the picturesque scenery along this peculiar river system.
The fact that the rivers of Chile afford practically no transportation facilities is a matter of little commercial importance, because of the narrow territorial limits of the country from east to west, the general course of all the streams. As a compensation for this lack of natural transportation routes to the interior, the coast of southern Chile is a succession of bays, sounds, gulfs and channels, including the historic Straits of Magellan, which separate Tierra del Fuego from the mainland, and Smyth’s Channel, dangerous to navigate because of the swift currents flowing through the narrow, tortuous ways. In many places along the coast the descent of the shore is so abrupt that heavy-draft vessels are enabled to pass within a few yards of the embankments, and directly under overhanging trees. This southern archipelago, with its hundreds of islands, presents a panorama of scenes peculiarly picturesque and interesting. Among the more important islands of the coast are Chiloe, the original habitat of the potato, Wellington, Hanover, Queen Adelaide, St. Ines, and Desolation, so-called because of the lack of vegetation and desolate aspect of this long narrow strip of land lying at the western entrance to the Straits of Magellan. In some of the narrow channels separating the islands from the mainland and from each other, the currents are so swift, the waters so disturbed and the storms so fierce in certain seasons, that the sea seems a boiling, seething caldron, terrifying to passengers and mariners on passing ships. But those dangerous passages add a fascinating feature to the scenic effects of the most picturesque portion of the coast country.
The Straits of Magellan are a wise and beneficent provision of nature, forming a great canal or natural transportation route across the southern portion of the continent, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Ships pass through the Straits instead of around Cape Horn, one of the most dangerous seas in the world to navigate. The Andean range of mountains, extending from the Arctic Ocean, and stretching its vast, rugged length across the two Americas, ends at the Straits, Mount Victoria, a massive pile of gleaming ice and snow, being the last link in the jagged chain. South of the Straits is Tierra del Fuego, “Land of Fire,” the hills and mountains of which, including the great pyramidal cone of Mount Sarmiento, perpetually covered with a mantle of snow, stretch away hundreds of miles to Cape Horn, the most southern point of the Continent.
The scenery as well as the topographical and geographical conditions of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia, in fact all the southern archipelago, are different from those in the arctic regions. There is more vegetation and a greater variety of scenery than in the coast countries of a corresponding latitude north. There are the beauties of the Thousand Islands, and Darwin, in describing a voyage through the Straits, compared the glaciers of Tierra del Fuego to a thousand frozen Niagaras. All the beautiful tints and combinations of coloring to be found in lakes Como and Lucerne, of the Mediterranean and the bay of Naples, are equaled, if not surpassed by, the hues reflected in the deep waters of those channels. Huge glaciers crowding down into the sea; giant rocks, rising like sheer walls of masonry for thousands of feet above the water, sometimes ending in shapes resembling church pinnacles and cathedral domes; mountains, whose forest-fringed bases are washed by the sea, their snow-mantled heads in the clouds; islands, frosted with snow and bejeweled with ice, in which is mingled the hues of gray-green moss and verdant vegetation; numerous winding, tortuous water-ways, dividing the islands from each other and separating them from the mainland, are some of the features of the panoramic view of coast-line, mountains and islands, presented in a landscape that is wonderfully picturesque and prepossessing. When storms sweep through these narrow channels, driving seas mountain-high against rocky shores, increasing the force of natural currents, obscuring the view with a shroud of snow and sleet and mist, a wild aspect is added to the scene. Mountains and islands rise ghostlike out of the water, their forms dimly outlined against the angry sky; and the din of booming seas and swiftly rushing waters adds terrifying confusion to the dangers of navigation.