AXTOFAGASTA KAILWAY WATERWORKS. 121 



able silver ores extracted from their famous mines at Pulacayo 

 in Bolivia, some 630 kilometres from the coast and situated at 

 an altitude of 12,500 feet above sea-level. 



From there onward, the continuation to Oruro — an old seat 

 of the Bolivian Government — and La Paz, the present capital, 

 was an assured conclusion. 



The country traversed by the railway is desolate to a degree. 

 For a distance of 438 kilometres to the Bolivian frontier, only one 

 river is encountered — the Loa — which is crossed by the railway 

 at Kilometre 238 and again at Kilometre 300, and a tributary of 

 the same river — the San Pedro — at Kilometre 313. 



Apart from these, in the whole of this distance not a single 

 stream, spring or brook is to be found on the surface. The Eail- 

 way Company, therefore, at the commencement, had to depend 

 on distilled water obtained from sea water distillers in the port. 



With the extension of the line into the interior this became 

 a matter of increasing difficulty, and with the growing needs of 

 the town which was springing up around the works in the port, 

 it was obvious that some other supply was necessary. 



The water in the river Loa is very heavily charged with salts, 

 and is quite unsuitable for human consumption or locomotive 

 boilers, and so it was necessary to go still farther afield. 



In 1888 the railway line had reached San Pedro, and at this 

 point crosses a tributary of the river Loa, called the San Pedro 

 Eiver, which rises at the base of the volcano San Pedro, some 

 30 kilometres from the railway line. 



The water in this stream has a hardness of 26 degrees, but 

 notwithstanding, the Eailway Company decided to apply for a 

 concession from the Government to take water from the stream, 

 and to carry the same in pipes to Antofagasta for the use of the 

 community, and the railway shops which were installed there. 

 From that date the Waterworks Department came into being. 



The concession was duly obtained, but the Government fixed 

 the maximum price at which water could be sold for all time, 

 and also stipulated for the free supply of water for municipal 

 and government purposes to the towns en route, and to Antofa- 

 gasta. 



In 1900, in order to improve the quality of the water supplied, 

 the pipe line was carried on to some springs farther in the Cor- 

 dillera of the Andes, distant some 340 kilometres from Antofa- 

 gasta. 



In 1905, nitrate oficinas commenced to spring up in the 

 nitrate district before mentioned, and a second pipe line, 204 

 kilometres long from San Pedro to Kilometre 110, to supply San 

 Pedro Kiver water for elaboration purposes in the oficinas was 

 decided upon and the work put in hand. This was concluded in 

 1908. 



At the end of 1908 the quantity of good water available for 

 domestic and locomotive consumption was insufficient for the 

 requirements and a pipe line from the Bolivian frontier to the 



