Page:A history of Chile.djvu/433

 CHILE OF TO-DAY 387 cagua, but the chief wealth of northern Chile is to be found in the rich mines of the mountains and nitrate deposits of the Tarapaca and Atacama regions. The mineral district proper consists of the provinces of Tacna, Tarapaca, Antofagasta and Atacama ; between the parallels of 27" and 32°, the countr}' is both a min- ing and an agricultural region. The central provinces, Santiago, O'Higgins, Colchagua, Curico, Talca, Lina- res, Maule, Nuble, Concepcion, Biobio, Arauco, Mal- leco, Cautin, Valdivia and Llanquihue, constitute a rich agricultural zone. From Puerto Montt to Cape Horn, there is a vast stretch of forest, mountain and island territory, valuable for fisheries and timber. It will thus be seen that Chile enjoj's every variety of climate, from the desert heat of Atacama to the snow and ice of Cape Horn, and is thus enabled to grow the fruits and grains of all zones and enjoy the products of all climates. The term which some Chileans use in speaking of their country, "pobre Chile," (poor Chile,) is scarcely applicable, as nature has lavished many bounties upon this tract of the inhabitable earth. Once there extended a chain of lakes up the great central valley, like those which are now seen in the islands from Chilo6 south, and these old beds have a very fer- tile alluvial soil, while the climate, tempered by the winds from the Pacific, is as mild and salubrious as that of California or Italy. The Chilean winter begins in June. The rainy sea- son further inland commences earlier than this, usually in April, and continues until the last of August. Sum- mer begins in December, spring the last of September, and from spring until autumn there is throughout Chile constant fine weather. In the southern portions, how- ever, and the timbered islands, the rainfall is heavy in summer. In the northern provinces, from Coquimbo