TEE NITRATE FIELDS OF CHILE 225 



Shipping in the harbor at Antofagasta. Xote the line of surf. 



haps 10 pesos is a fair average for the majority. Houses are provided 

 by the company, but heat, light and water must be paid for by all 

 except salaried employes. This latter class, including the manager, or 

 administrador, and his subordinates, the engineer, bookkeeper, chemist, 

 electrical expert, etc., are given their quarters, heat, light and water, 

 in addition to salaries that range from 1,000 pesos up to 4,000 pesos 

 a month. 



Though wages and salaries appear high in units of currency, the 

 prices of food stuffs also are necessarily high, since next to nothing can 

 be raised anywhere in the nitrate region. Some prices charged in com- 

 pany stores are as follows : flour, 20 pesos per quintal ; beans, 30 pesos 

 per sack of about one bushel; eggs, 6 pesos a dozen; coal, 6 pesos for 

 about 100 pounds. Only canned milk can be had, for there is no way 

 of keeping cattle in this barren land. All cuts of meat are 50 cents per 

 pound, and the rule of " first come, first choice " results in the forma- 

 tion of a " meat line " early every morning. A good many of the cattle 

 used here come overland from Argentina. Kerosene from the United 

 States costs about 1 peso a gallon, but the tin in which it comes also must 

 be considered, since it serves a multitude of uses from waterpail to roof- 

 ing material and baking oven. Potatoes are commonly sold by the 

 half robo, which equals about a half bushel, but the natives are fond of 

 explaining, with a significant gesture, that robo also means robbery. 



The laborers generally are paid not in money, but in features, discs 

 resembling poker chips and bearing the company name, together with 

 the equivalent value in actual currency. These features are used almost 

 solely at the company stores, but if any workman desires his wages in 

 money he may draw at any time all that is due him. For the salaried 



vol. lxxxiii. — 16. 



