456 



SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



connected by rail with its seaport of Caldera, 50 miles to the north-west, and with 

 all the surrounding mineral districts. The Caldera line, the first opened on the 

 Pacific slope of the Andes, dates from the year 1851, and is consequently the 

 oldest in South America, that of Demerara in British Guiana alone excepted. 



Copiapo does a flourishing trade with Famatina, on the Argentine side of the 

 Andes, which is reached through the Come-Caballos Pass and other difficult 



Fig. 17i. — La Seeena and Coquimeo. 

 Scale 1 : 1,100,000. 





.V" 



29 



^7"^' 



^J ^ 





^' 





.-'X.^^ 



We^t oP L 



0to5 

 Fathoms. 



Depths. 



5 to 50 

 Fathoms. 



50 to 500 

 Fathoms. 



500 Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



18 Mile.s. 



routes, sooner or later to be replaced by a railway over ground already surve3'ed. 

 Large numbers of meteoric stones have fallen near Imilac, on this line. 



South of Copiapo the mineral zone still continues to and beyond the mining 

 town of Yerhahucna at the foot of Cerro de la Plata (" Silver Mount "). Yerba- 

 buena is connected by rail with the port of Carrizal Bajo, which, with its neigh- 

 bour, Carrizal.AHo, forms an important centre of the copper-mining industry. 



