474 SOUTH AMEEICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



Ail tlie other northern lines owe their existence to the mining industry, and 

 are due to private enterprise. The most costly runs from Antofagasta up to the 

 Bolivian plateaux, the section within Chilian territory being about 270 miles long. 

 The nitrate lines terminating at Pisagua, Iquique and Patillos have a joint length 

 of 240 miles ; those of the Copiapo copper-mining district over 150 miles. 



Since the late civil war, railway enterprise has received a fresh impulse, and the 

 three lines have been taken in hand which are ultimately to cross the Andes in 

 the north, centre and south, with terminal Chilian stations at Copiapo, Santa Rosa 

 de los Andes and Yumbel, near Concepcion, respectively. But the greatest 

 activity is concentrated on the trans- Andean trunk line, which is to connect Val- 

 paraiso with Buenos Ayres, and thus realise the scheme of a trans-continental 

 railway projected by Wheelwright in 1863. In 1893 the whole line, 925 miles 

 long, had been completed except a short section of 40 miles ; but in this section 

 occur the steepest gradients, the longest and most difficult tunnels. On the Chilian 

 side, which is by far the more precipitous, an escarpment will have to be sur- 

 mounted by means of a spiral tunnel making a complete letter-S twist, and steep 

 inclines will have to be ascended by the ratchet system with a gradient of 8 in 

 100. Five tunnels follow in rapid succession, with a collective length of 14,300 

 yards, the last and longest (5,540 yards) piercing the Cumbre at an altitude of 

 10,430 feet in order to reach tbe Argentine slope. But financial disasters, strikes 

 and mishaps of all kinds have retarded the undertaking, which, unless fresh funds 

 can be raised, will scarcely be completed before the close of the century. 



The telegraph system has also been rapidly developed in recent years, and in 

 1891 there was a total length of 13,730 miles, of which 8,000 were owned by the 

 State. A telephone company had established apparatus in over forty towns of the 

 republic, and more than 44,000,000 letters, papers and parcels had been forwarded 

 through 514 district post-offices. 



Chili is surpassed by Venezuela alone amongst the Andean States in the 

 number of her educational establishments ; but she greatly excels the rival republic 

 in scientific and literary activity. The primary schools are attended by about 

 100,000 children, or a thirtieth of the whole population, while several small towns 

 possess lyceums, colleges and other secondary schools. The University of Santiago 

 comprises the same faculties as those of Europe, and schools of practical agriculture 

 have been founded at Santiago, Tacna, Concepcion and elsewhere. But in Chili, 

 as in Peru and Colombia, the educated youth devote their energies chiefly to law 

 and the " political sciences " — in other words, to party politics and journalism. 



The printing-press, first introduced in 1820. now issues over 200 periodicals, 

 including 7 daily papers and 35 other journals in Santiago, and 16 in Valparaiso. 



IX. 



Administration. 



The Chilian Constitution, several times modified by legal procedure and 

 recently suspended by the civil war, dates from 1833. The State is declared to be a 



