A LONGITUDINAL JOURNEY THROUGH CHILE 



229 



Publishers' Photo Service 



IODINE, A BY-PRODUCT OF NITRATE MANUFACTURE 



Precipitated from the nitrate solution, iodine is the most important by-product of the 

 caliche rock. By agreement among the nitrate establishments, its production is limited to 

 every sixth year, in order that the market may not be overstocked. These rawhide kegs, filled 

 with iodine, are worth $300 each. 



quake of the previous year. The hotel, 

 kept by a sad-faced Englishman, had a 

 decided tilt. Doors and windows were 

 jammed and window-panes missing. Our 

 host apologized for candle-light, saying 

 that the gas-pipes were still out of com- 

 mission. The stone bathtub, reached by 

 a rickety flight of steps, had a somewhat 

 tipsy appearance. 



But the Copiapinos have not lost cour- 

 age. More than once earthquakes have 

 completely demolished the town. In this 

 land where the extreme infrequence of 

 showers is a hardship, they have come to 

 believe that earthquakes are forerunners 

 of much-needed rain. Between quakes 

 they look to the east, watching for a 

 heavy fall of snow in the Andes. Then 

 the river runs full and the fields smile. 



From Copiapo a trail across the desert 

 leads to the mountains, so sterile, gaunt, 

 and forbidding; yet there is a majesty in 



the Andean contour. From our bleak, 

 upland camp at the sunset hour, the 

 coloring of slopes and crags was gorgeous 

 beyond adjectives to describe. Pink 

 deepened to rose ; rose to terra-cotta ; 

 terra-cotta to purple. Then each tower- 

 ing peak became a sentinel guarding a 

 mysterious Promised Land beyond the 

 Andes. 



We passed the ruins of long-abandoned 

 stone dwellings, occupied, perhaps, in 

 those remote days of pre-Incan rule when 

 these mountains had not risen to their 

 present height and this region was within 

 the corn belt. 



HOME OF THE GUANACO, VICUNA, AND 

 CHINCHILLA 



We geographers must think of the 

 Andes, not as a range rising from the 

 coastal plain, but as the most stupendous 

 mountain system in the world, if we con- 



