4G8 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



potentate teld a council of women every evening, and on tLeir advice issued 

 her edicts regulating the conduct of the men, their husbands. The " high priest " 

 acquired his right to direct the public worship by winning a swimming match 

 between the large island and the neighbouring Sala-u-Gomez, a mere basalt rock 

 without any resources. 



VIII. 



Material Condition of Chili. 



Since the close of the colonial period the population of Chili has increased 

 more rapidly than that of any other Andean region. If the early estimates and 

 present returns can be trusted, the relative rate of progress has even been much 

 greater than that of Colombia, having advanced from 700,000 to 3,rD00,000, or 

 nearly fivefold, since 1810. But statisticians depend more on conjecture than on 

 precise figures. As the starting point of their calculation they take the census 

 of 1885 and infer the annual increase by adding to the total some 50,000 

 independent Indians, and allowing a deduction of 15 per cent, on the cfficial 

 estimates. 



But even so, the density of the Chilian population can be compared to that 

 of Europe only in the central provinces, where are situated the two chief cities, 

 Valparaiso and Santiago. K^orth and south of this zone the provinces are very 

 thinly peopled. As in all other countries receiving a considerable stream of 

 immigrants, the urban is relatively larger than the rural population, though it 

 has not yet acquired the absolute preponderance. According to the returns for 

 1885 the respective figures were 1,062,544 townsfolk and 1,464,776 countryfolk. 

 The equilibrium of the sexes seems to be perfectly established, the same census 

 showing 1,263,640 males and 1,263,680 females in a total of 2,527,320. 



Agriculture. 



Although Chili still possesses vast stretches of land awaiting cultivation, 

 hundreds of thousands own no freehold, and many of these seek their fortunes 

 either in the Ctiyo, that is, the conterminous Argentine province, or in Peru and 

 Bolivia, or even in California. On the other hand, the tide of immigration has 

 been continuous, except during the recent civil strife, settlers being attracted to the 

 mining industries in the northern districts and in the province of Concepcion, 

 or to Santiago and to the other large industrial and trading places, especially 

 along the seaboard. Some farmers, also, nearly all German and Swiss, have 

 settled in the southern provinces, where the Government allots them the lands 

 appropriated from the Araucanian aborigines. Thus the foreign element increases 

 from census to census more rapidly than the native, numbering at present neai;ly 

 100,000 if Peruvians and Bolivians be included. 



