224 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by R. W. Lohman 



THE LITTLE COUSIN OE THE CAMEL 



In the Andean region of northernmost Chile, as in the neighboring 

 countries of Peru and Bolivia, llamas are used as beasts of burden. They 

 are highland animals and do not come down to the coast. The trail call 

 of the Indian driver is "Buss-ss-ss." 



The eternal blue skies had gotten on his 

 nerves. 



''The climate is trying," he told me, 

 "hot during the day, with afternoon dust- 

 storms, and often frost at night." 



His particular settlement, with 2,000 or 

 more inhabitants, is a little world in itself, 

 miles from its nearest neighbor. Sur- 

 rounding the plant are comfortable homes, 

 a hotel, store, hospital, church, post-office, 

 barracks, and a plaza, where the band 

 plays in the evening. 



According to authorities, the explored 

 nitrate region contains sufficient mineral 

 to last for 240 years, at the present rate of 

 production. 



The nitrate labor- 

 ers arc m o s t 1 v 

 Chileans, the rotos, 

 or workingmen of 

 the country, with a 

 few Bolivians and 

 Peruvians. Chile 

 has always depend- 

 ed for labor on 

 her own peasantry, 

 never importing 

 African slaves or 

 Asiatic coolies, as 

 have other of the 

 Latin American 

 countries. 



Alcoholism is 

 slowly but surely 

 sapping the vitality 

 of the Chilean roto, 

 long noted for his 

 powerful physique. 

 The Latin Ameri- 

 can of the educated 

 class drinks tem- 

 perately, regarding 

 wine as a nourish- 

 ment rather than a 

 stimulant ; but, on 

 my last journey, I 

 noted a growing 

 movement in fa- 

 vor of prohibition 

 throughout Chile, 

 among thinking 

 people who realize 

 the evil result of 

 alcohol on the 

 working classes. 



The second night 

 out from Antofa- 

 gasta we reached Copiapo, where we left 

 the Valparaiso Express to travel there- 

 after on "local" day trains, stopping off 

 in many Chilean towns all the way down 

 to the Gulf of Ancud. 



chile's most historic town 



Copiapo is Chile's most historic town. 

 The little stream which borders it, now 

 nearly dry, now in full flood, was our 

 first oasis after crossing the parched 

 desert of Atacama. To travelers of old, 

 as to us, this strip of meadow land was 

 a God-given sight. 



To Copiapo, in the fifteenth century, 

 marched the Incan ruler, Tupac Yupan- 



