A LONGITUDINAL JOURNEY THROUGH CHILE 



237 



Publishers' Photo Service 



WHEN THE BIG SHIP COMES INTO HARBOR 



When an ocean liner anchors off the port of Coquimbo, rowboats put out from the shore 

 laclen with fruit from the fertile valley of the river Elqui. Here the wide, irrigated plain is 

 emerald green with alfalfa and vines heavy with luscious white grapes. 



was introduced in the fifties. Chilean 

 wines are celebrated throughout Spanish 

 America. Here the manufacture of wine 

 is regarded as a national industry and 

 few advocates of prohibition place light 

 wine and beer on the black list. 



The chief producers market their high- 

 grade brands with a little metal tag at- 

 tached to each bottle. Each tag bears a 

 number. The restaurant proprietor, when 

 uncorking a bottle, keeps the tag. Every 

 month there is a lottery, and those hold- 

 ing tags with the winning numbers re- 

 ceive cash prizes. Some proprietors turn 

 the tag privilege over to their waiters, 

 who naturally urge the patrons to use 

 the tagged brands. 



At the River Elqui the longitudinal 

 railway gives a twist seaward to serve the 

 -charmingly situated town of La Serena 

 and Coquimbo, its port. 



La Serena, now as tranquil as its 

 name implies, dates back to 1544. In its 

 early history its calm was twice broken 

 by English buccaneers. In visiting it? 

 old churches, I was reminded that Chile 

 was devoid of art and industry for two 

 centuries of colonial rule ; all church orna- 

 ments and books on sacred subjects were 

 brought from Quito, Ecuador. 



As you sail down the Pacific coast, you 

 say good-by to verdure at Guayaquil ; 

 then follows the long_ stretch of desert 

 coast through Peru and northern Chile. 

 It is only as you near Coquimbo that 

 green fields again greet you. 



For a century and a half Coquimbo has 

 been famed as a mining center. One of 

 our North American steel companies has 

 developed a remarkable iron property in 

 the gigantic Tofo mines, where ore taken 

 from a mountain of iron by steam-shovels 



