A LONGITUDINAL JOURNEY THROUGH CHILE 



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Publishers' Photo Service 



SOLDIERS AT SCHOOL 



Military service is obligatory in Chile, a call being made on all males of twenty years. The 

 strength, of the active army is estimated at about 20,000 ; war strength, 300,000. 



death by the Spaniards ; the other caused 

 the death of the Spanish conqueror, 

 Pedro de Valdivia. 



In the blood of the southern Chileans, 

 save among a few aristocratic Spanish 

 families, flows the strain of conqueror 

 and conquered. The great round eyes of 

 Chilean children, the features of the uni- 

 versally beautiful women, show Mapuche 

 blood. As a pure-blooded stock, these 

 Indians are doomed ; but here there will 

 be absorption rather than annihilation, 

 and the splendid physique and valorous 

 traits of this native people will not be 

 lost to posterity. 



In Hopi-Land, in Arizona, the Indians 

 hold their annual prayer festival for rain. 

 In Mapuche-Land they also have a tra- 

 ditional prayer feast ; but here they pray 

 for dry weather. The season of our 

 visit there had been scarcely two con- 

 secutive rainless lays. We were under 

 the weeping skies of Arauco. 



In northern Chile they long for rain ; 

 in southern Chile, for sunshine. In the 

 nitrate zone the total rainfall during the 

 past twenty years has barely totaled one 



inch. For fourteen years not a drop fell. 

 In Copiapo, 500 miles from the begin- 

 ning of the Chilean desert, there is an 

 average annual fall of three-quarters of 

 an inch. 



But if the north has "gone dry," the 

 south is certainly wet. Here Jupiter 

 Pluvius reigns. Vapor-laden winds from 

 the Pacific meet winter-chilled earth. 

 The winds, ascending the Andes, pass 

 through Nature's wringer and are hurled 

 back in torrents. Annual precipitation 

 must be gauged in feet instead of inches. 

 Sixteen feet, even eighteen feet, farther 

 south, is the official record. 



Our winter is the Chilean summer. 

 If you plan a visit to rainiest Chile, go in 

 December or January. Then the roads 

 are in better condition. 



WOODEN CLOGS REPLACE RUBBERS 



Saddle travel is popular. Ox-teams 

 drag carts over the muddiest of roads. 

 The carts have wooden wheels, like the 

 chariots of the Romans, and their creak- 

 ing is heard from afar. In more settled 

 regions, corduroy roads have been con- 



