THE NITRATE DEPOSITS OF CHILE 15 



in parts of the pampa, especially in Antofagasta, but is not worked 

 on account of the limited demand for it. There are many materials 

 in the pampa, such as potassium salts, etc., which would be of great 

 value if found in quantities, but, so far as yet known, they occur too 

 sparingly to be of any considerable commercial importance. 



To summarize, it may be said that the commercial products of 

 the pampa are mostly sodium nitrate, with comparatively small, 

 but commercially very important, quantities of iodine; while com- 

 mon salt is obtained on a small scale for local use, and borates have 

 been produced in varying quantities at different times, often in very 

 important amounts. The production, however, of all the other 

 saline materials in the pampa is insignificant in importance com- 

 pared with that of sodium nitrate. 



OTHER NITRATE REGIONS IN CHILE 



As already stated, almost all the nitrate of Chile is in the great 

 arid basin lying between the Andes and the Coast Ranges, in the 

 provinces of Tarapaca and Antofagasta. South of the nitrate 

 fields of Tarapaca, already described, the main pampa region extends 

 through the province of Antofagasta and here several large nitrate 

 fields occur. A number of transverse ridges, or ranges of hills, inter- 

 sect this region, forming more or less separated basins, and it is in 

 these that the nitrate occurs. The different basins are designated 

 as different pampas, but all of them are simply parts of the general 

 pampa region. 



The El Toco Pampa is in the northern part of the province of 

 Antofagasta, and here large deposits of nitrate are actively worked. 

 The refined product is shipped from Tocopilla, a seaport about 120 

 odd miles south of Iquique, and connected with the nitrate district 

 by a railway. Farther south in the same province are the Antofagasta 

 Pampa and the Aguas Blancas Pampa. Both are large producers of 

 nitrate, and are connected by railway with the port of Antofagasta, 

 which is the shipping-point for the nitrate from these districts and 

 is an important city of about 20,000 people. Recently also a new 

 port called Mejillones, a few miles north of the port of Antofagasta, 

 has been improved and connected with the railway running into the 

 nitrate fields, in order to facilitate shipments. Still farther south, 



