32 DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. 



Other information respecting these harbors will be found in Chapter X, giving an account of a 

 visit to the provinces of Atacama and Coquimbo. 



Huasco, a port of entry, though scarcely more than an open roadstead, in latitude 28 2*7', is 

 resorted to by vessels for copper and copper ores, and coasting vessels carrying food and other 

 necessaries for the mining population <}f this portion of the province. Owing to very deep 

 water outside, its anchorage is close in with the shore and wholly exposed to northerly winds. 

 These bring in a heavy swell, when vessels are obliged to rely wholly on their cables and an- 

 chors for safety, as it would be next to impossible to clear the rocky island, lying seaward, in 

 anything like a blow. Fortunately, severe northers rarely occur here. When the surf will 

 permit boats to approach the beach, good water may be had from the little river just to the 

 northward of the village ; but there is no other refreshment for vessels. Except where the 

 solitary rivulet gives animation to the borders of the channel which conducts it to the sea, the 

 surrounding country is most barren and miserable. Yet so long as the mines continue to 

 yield, so long will vessels continue to resort there, even the British mail steamers stopping 

 regularly for the silver freight, although the distances from Coquimbo and Caldera are such as 

 inevitably cause their arrival in the night. Eecently, one was totally lost in the attempt to go 

 in. Counting them, the average number of foreign arrivals during the last four years has 

 been 43, measuring 23,248 tons ; of national vessels 34, tonnage 4,859 ; vessels under the 

 English flag 36, tonnage 20,746. Only 13 American vessels, or about 3 per year, entered at 

 the Custom House within the same period. 



Until the completion of the railroad between Caldera and the capital of the province of Ata- 

 cama, the port of the latter was at the village of Copiapo, a wretched open and dangerous 

 roadstead, difficult to enter because of numerous rocks about it, and unsafe to lie in from bad 

 holding-ground and the sudden swell that frequently sets toward the shore. Why it should 

 have been chosen when there were two safe harbors within 20 miles, neither of which is more 

 distant from the capital, it is impossible to understand. Of course, such a place was unfitted 

 for the terminus of a railroad, and the engineers having selected Caldera bay, in latitude 27. 

 03', government transferred its Custom House and officers to that locality during the year 1851. 



This is a fine bay of nearly square form, quite a mile across, with neither external nor inter- 

 nal dangers, and deep water. Though open to northwest winds, these are extremely rare and 

 never very violent, and under all circumstances the anchoring ground in the northeast angle is 

 a safe one. Since the completion of the railway, the company have erected a long pier in the 

 southeast quarter, which serves as an excellent breakwater as well as for discharging and load- 

 ing ships. This is the most thorough engineering work yet executed in Chile, and reflects 

 great credit on the gentleman who planned and executed it in a region so destitute of re- 

 sources. 



Copper and silver ores from the mines toward, the Andes are the only exports. Except 

 that distilled from, sea-water and sold by the railroad company, even good water is not attain- 

 able. That from the wells is so completely impregnated with lime and salts, that only the 

 wretched fishermen who dwell on like inhospitable parts of the coast can ever drink it. Not- 

 withstanding the enormous prices of every article of food, the town laid out soon after the work 

 commenced is gaining rapidly ; and in less than three years after the engineers landed on the 

 hopelessly barren shores of the bay, the road and mole were completed, and more than 2,000 

 people were housed, though there never had been more than 300 or 400 inhabitants at the old 

 village of Copiapo. At the last accounts, Caldera was thriving even more surprisingly. The 

 road afforded facilities for transporting ores previously worthless because of the cost of freight 

 to the sea, furnaces were in course of erection for smelting, new and handsome houses were 

 being built, and many ships came with coal and goods to exchange for copper and silver ores. 

 Even a cargo of Yankee ice had found ready purchasers, and government had given one of our 

 countrymen the exclusive privilege of selling this product of Massachusetts. 



During four years ending with 1851, the trade of this collection district, which embraces the 



