45° 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Brazil, at once shaded boulevard, busi- 

 ness thoroughfare, and promenade. 



The city has many fine business 

 blocks of modern construction and the 

 government buildings are unusually 

 tasteful and harmonious. All bear the 

 impress of Italian architecture. 



The port, as is natural, is cosmopoli- 

 tan. The German colony is largest, 

 and after that the Italian, in numbers, 

 though in influence they are hardly so 

 strong as either the English or the 

 French. The French community is 

 self-contained and is an important fac- 

 tor in commerce. The Britishers, 

 chiefly from Scotland, are in everything 

 except retail trade. Though the Eng- 

 lish language is common, Valparaiso is 

 the one city in South America in which 

 I heard German spoken oftener. The 

 shipping of Valparaiso is vast and 

 varied, a floating panorama of many 

 nations, like a miniature Hamburg. 

 The English lines maintain a regular 

 fortnightly service of cargo and pas- 

 senger vessels, and also a special ser- 

 vice of cargo vessels to Liverpool. The 

 steamers are of 5,000 tons and upward. 

 The distance to Liverpool by way of 

 the Straits is 9,500 to 9,800 miles, and 

 the sailing schedule is 35 days. 



The Bay of Valparaiso is a discour- 

 aging one. It is surprising that so ex- 

 tensive a commerce can be handled 

 with such poor facilities. The shipping 

 approximates 1,000,000 tons yearly. 

 The engineering difficulties in the way 

 of creating a real harbor are well un- 

 derstood, though not easily overcome. 

 The rains wash the hills down into the 

 sea, but the detritus, or silt, does not 

 fill in what seems to be the bottomless 

 bed of the ocean, so profound is it. 

 There is no breakwater. At the begin- 

 ning of every winter season the ques- 

 tion is raised,What will be the harvest 

 of the disaster? It seems incredible 

 that vessels of 3,000 tons could be lost 

 in this bay, but that is what has hap- 

 pened. In May, 1903, voyaging down 

 the coast in the Tucapel, we were told 

 that the Arequipa, of 3,000 tons burden, 

 was the next ship following us. One 



night a savage tempest arose, many of 

 the smaller vessels were wrecked, and 

 the Arequipa, foundered and went down 

 with the loss of a hundred lives. 



In July, 1904, another destructive 

 storm swept along the coast. The 

 lower part of the city was completely 

 covered with mud and water, the sea- 

 wall was destroyed, and the railroad 

 badly damaged. The loss of life was 

 not great, but the destruction of prop- 

 erty was serious. 



In the period from 1823 to 1893 the 

 shipping statistics show the loss of 378 

 water craft in the Bay of Valparaiso, 

 of which 100 were rowing and sailing 

 boats. The money value was incalcu- 

 lable. 



The Chilean government has at last, 

 however, after many discouragements, 

 accepted the plans of Mr Jacob Kraus, 

 the Holland engineer, for conquering 

 the difficulties which Nature has placed 

 in the way of making Valparaiso Bay 

 hospitable instead of hostile to the 

 ships that bear the commerce of many 

 seas. The estimated cost of the harbor 

 improvement is $15,000,000 gold, 

 though the initial provision was for 

 $11,000,000. The scheme contemplates 

 the construction of a series of sea-walls 

 in the bay. The water is so deep that 

 it is considered impracticable to build a 

 single breakwater across the mouth of 

 the harbor. 



the startling deathrate of chile 



The figures on the Chilean death rate 

 are startling. The annual death rate 

 has been placed as high as 70 per 1,000 

 and frequently it is given as 50 per 

 1,000. This is correct for the majority 

 of the towns and cities, but does not 

 apply to the country as a whole. The 

 official statistics for a period of ten 

 years, which I examined, did not ex- 

 ceed an average of 35 per 1,000; but 

 even that is nearly double the normal 

 death rate in the temperate countries ; 

 and Chile, not being in the Torrid Zone, 

 is not subject to yellow fever and 

 similar tropical epidemics. The figures 

 showed that the birth rate and the 



