2 R. A. F. PENROSE, JR. 



The nitrate deposits are found at intervals in an arid region known 

 as the pampa, which runs north and south in a long narrow belt 

 for almost five hundred miles between the Andes on the east and the 

 Coast Range on the west, and from a few miles to over one hundred 

 miles inland. 



During the year 1907 the writer visited some of the nitrate regions 

 of northern Chile, and the present paper embodies his investigations 

 there. The remarks apply mostly to the Tarapaca region,' unless 

 otherwise stated, as that was the only part of the field carefully studied. 

 There is, however, much similarity in many of the features of the 

 nitrate deposits in both Tarapaca and Antofagasta, though in some 

 respects they differ considerably. 



HISTORY OF THE NITRATE MINING INDUSTRY 



• The nitrate deposits of Chile have probably been known from 

 very ancient times, but the extensive mining and utilization of them 

 is a comparatively modern industry. During the wars for independ- 

 ence which the countries on the west coast of South America waged 

 against Spain in the early part of the nineteenth century, the nitrates 

 are said to have been utilized to make niter for gunpowder. The first 

 operations to handle nitrate on any considerable scale, however, are 

 said to have been started by a Frenchman named Hector Bacque, at 

 La Noria, in Tarapaca, about 1826.' This enterprise was followed 

 by a number of others, and in the next fifty years, many similar 

 operations were started by Europeans, Americans, and Chileans. 



The early enterprises were all in what is now the province of 

 Tarapaca, a region which at that time belonged to Peru, and which 

 was supposed to be the only part of this coast that contained nitrate; 

 but as the industry grew and began to attract more general notice, 

 search was made for nitrate elsewhere. The result was the discovery 

 of deposits in the province of Antofagasta, lying south of Peruvian 

 territory, and active mining operations were soon started there. At 

 this time, the northern part of what is now Antofagasta belonged 

 to Bolivia and the southern part to Chile. The Chilean govern- 

 ment, recognizing the importance of the new discoveries, sent out 

 a commission to investigate the occurrence of nitrate in Chilean 



I G. F. Scott Elliot, Chile, p. 259. 



