ADMINISTRATION OF CHILI. 477 



These political divisions vary immensely in extent and population, the latter 

 being as a rule in inverse proportion to the former. Thus, about one-fourth 

 of all the inhabitants of Chili are concentrated in the two central provinces of 

 Santiago and Valparaiso, although their joint area is considerably less than one- 

 fortieth of that of the whole republic. On the other hand Magellanes, by far the 

 largest administrative division in extent (over 75,000 square miles), has scarcely 

 the population of a good-sized village (about 3,000 in 1893). Hence this vast 

 region at the southern extremity of Chili forms neither a province nor even a 

 department, but only a territory without any representation in the national 

 assembly, and according to the present Constitution it must continue unrepre- 

 sented until it can show a population of 30,000. 



Meanwhile the balance of political power, so far as it depends on the body of 

 electors, is in a great measure held by the little central district in which are 

 situated the capital, Santiago, and its port of Valparaiso. "With a collective area 

 of less than 7,000 square miles, this favoured district returns as many as twenty 

 deputies to the Lower House, which in 1891 comjjrised not more than ninety- 

 seven members altogether. 



