CHILI. 



123 



miles), and of private lines 906 kilometres 

 (equal to 571 miles) ; together, 1,855 kilo- 

 metres, or 1,169 miles. 



Postal Service. The number of post-offices, 

 in 1882, was 370, forwarding during the year 

 altogether 10,204,097 letters, 19,950 sample 

 packages, 13,786 legal documents, 493,572 

 government dispatches, and 11,046,534 news- 

 papers ; together, 21,777,939 items of mail 

 matter, the gross amount of postage collected 

 being $378,749. 



'Telegraphs. The telegraphic service was, in 

 1882, carried on in 136 offices, 127 of which 

 were under government management ; the total 

 length of lines was 9,493 kilometres (equal to 

 5,981 miles), of which 8,943 kilometres were 

 government lines. The number of messages 

 sent was 433,475 ; of these 159,999 were gov- 

 ernment dispatches, and 273,476 private. The 

 gross amount collected for telegrams was 

 $378,749. 



Immigration. To hasten the settlement of 

 Villa-Rica, the new city founded in the center 

 of the Indian territory of Araucania, now be- 

 ing civilized, the Government has made a con- 

 tract with Don Francisco de B. Echeverria for 

 the introduction from Europe of 2,000 families 

 from the Basque provinces of Spain. Mean- 

 while the agent of Chilian colonization in Eu- 

 rope has contracted for the immigration into 

 Chili of numerous families belonging to the 

 farming class in Germany. 



College Reforms. The Minister of Public In- 

 struction is elaborating a reform project for 

 the School of Arts and Trades at Santiago, 

 preference to be given to the more practical 

 branches of education in that college, and for 

 this purpose, professors and machinists of note 

 are, if possible, to be engaged abroad, and ma- 

 chinery, etc., is to be procured for practical 

 demonstration. 



Trade-Marks in Chili. Chili provides for the 

 protection of trade-marks both to residents and 

 foreigners. The registry of the marks is in- 

 scribed on the register of the office of the Na- 

 tional Society of Agriculture. The Chilian 

 definition of a trade-mark is somewhat vague, 

 and is comprised under the two heads, trade- 

 marks applied to articles as products of indus- 

 try, and marks applied to objects of traffic, the 

 one relative to marks indicating ownership, as 

 concerns the manufacturer, and the other that 

 of distinctive ownership on the part of the 

 dealer. The registry must be renewed every 

 ten years. 



New Pass over the Andes. The recent discovery 

 of a pass across the mountain-chain which di- 

 vides Chili from the Argentine Republic may 

 possibly exert an important influence upon the 

 future of South America. This pathway has 

 long been known to the Indians of the mount- 

 ain-region, but they have hitherto kept it a 

 secret. For more than 1,000 miles the Andes 

 extend between Chilian and Argentine terri- 

 tory, at an average elevation of 13,000 feet 

 above sea-level. When the dispute in regard 



to the possession of Patagonia, a few years 

 ago, threatened to bring the two republics to 

 blows, it was seen that any war between them 

 must be fought out at sea, the passage of the 

 Andes, by any openings then known, being im- 

 possible against a hostile force. An Argentine 

 army, to maintain itself at all, would have 

 needed to emerge from the mountains upon 

 Chilian soil somewhere near its objective point 

 that is to say, Valparaiso and Santiago, 

 which are comparatively near each other, and 

 would be included in any plan of invasion. 

 The practicable passes thus became limited to 

 the Patos and the Cumbre, for those farther 

 north would not only give an invading army a 

 dangerously long line of communication with 

 its base, but are too difficult of ascent, and in 

 some cases are approached over barren regions. 

 The only pass to be seriously thought of, in 

 fact, was La Cumbre, which is almost opposite 

 Valparaiso, or on the same parallel ; and yet 

 its height, its extreme narrowness for many 

 miles, its continued windings and abrupt as- 

 cents, would make it defensible by 1,000 good 

 men against an invading army from either side. 



But the newly discovered Bariloche Pass, 

 being near Lake Nahuelhaspi, puts an entirely 

 new face on the question of transandean com- 

 munication. It is situated where the continent, 

 narrowing greatly, forms the peninsula of 

 Patagonia ; it is approached easily across the 

 pampas, and from the westernmost Argentine 

 post at Nahuelhaspi the distance is only a few 

 score miles to the Pacific coast. 



The commercial importance of this pass, 

 however, far outweighs all military considera- 

 tions. The two enterprising republics have 

 removed their only serious source of dissension 

 by a peaceful division of Patagonia, and hence- 

 forth the one can pursue its development as an 

 Atlantic and the other as a Pacific country. 

 Both have long sought railroad communica- 

 tion across the Andes. One such road, in 

 fact, has already been undertaken between 

 Buenos Ayres and Santiago, designed to pierce 

 the mountains by way of Mendoza, through 

 one of the passess already spoken of. The ex- 

 treme difficulties of this route have impeded 

 its construction ; but a road starting from the 

 Gulf of San Matias and crossing northern 

 Patagonia through the Bariloche Pass would 

 have only half the length of the more north- 

 erly route, and would traverse a region where 

 the peculiar relations of the mountains to the 

 two oceans cause the storms to be usually of 

 rain rather than snow, the route being in about 

 42 S. lat., and hence in a temperate climate. 

 The great drawback seems to be that it trav-. 

 erses a region infested with ho.stile Indians. 



Of course, a most important consideration 

 is the exact height of the new pass ; but since 

 it is known that the Andes in Patagonia fall 

 off to an average altitude little more than half 

 that of a few miles farther north, the route 

 seems certain to yield advantages in this par- 

 ticular. 



