Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/634

Rh 622 CHILI Universidad, and of the Church, La Revista Catohca. There are also German and English newspapers. The national literature of Chili belongs chiefly to the belles lettres class, tinged with French ideas. The scientific writers are mostly foreigners or the descendants of foreigners. On an average, three times more books are imported from France than from England; ten times more than from Spain, or the United States, or Germany ; and twenty-two times more than from Belgium. Post-office Post-office. The number of letters that passed through the post-office in 1874 was 5 millions; of newspapers, periodicals, and circulars, 1 millions; and of samples, 12,000, besides 336,000 official despatches. Army. Army and Navy. The army of Chili, which in time of war has exceeded 4500 men, was reduced in 1875 to 3500, consisting of 700 cavalry, 2000 infantry, and 800 artillery. This force is distributed on sentry duties and upon the frontiers, but the real military strength of the country is the National Guard. The National Guard, also divided into cavalry, infantry, and artillery, averaged 55,000 men from 1867 to 1871, but in 1875 had become reduced to 22,000, the country being at peace. Navy. The navy consists of two powerful ironclads, the &quot; Almirante Cochrane &quot; and the &quot; Valparaiso,&quot; constructed in England, each of 1000 horse-power, and of about 2000 metric tons measurement, besides three corvettes, a sloop, and several transport vessels on active service, and two corvettes allocated to the naval schools. All are steamers. The marine force amounted in 1875 to 1600 men, includ ing sailors, engineers, officers, and 200 marines and artillery men. Minerals. Mineral Productions. Chili is rich in minerals. Among its metals are gold, silver, copper, lead, antimony, cobalt, zinc, nickel, bismuth, iron, molybdenum, and quicksilver, found in mines in the northern division, while rich beds of coal occupy the southern divi sion, but only copper, silver, and coal are profitable to any extent. The various ores are found in all the series of rocks between granite and trachyte, the latter being sterile in Chili. The veins generally run from N. and N.W. to S. and S.E. ; in some places, however, their course is irregular, or they extend E. and W. Gold. The auriferous veins run nearly parallel to the imperfect cleavage of the surrounding granite rocks. Copper ores, containing a small quantity of gold, are generally associated with micaceous specular iron. Some mines are remarkable for the variety of minerals mixed with the gold, such as galena, blende, copper and iron pyrites, and peroxide of iron. These substances are found disseminated in quartz veins running nearly N. and S. Near lllapel are some very poor gold mines, in the beds of the gypseous formation, in altered fel- spathic clay-slate, which alternate with purple porphyritic con glomerate. Silver. The richest silver mines are found in Jurassic rocks of the Oolitic formation in the province of Atacama. The richest districts are Chaharcillo, Tres Puntas, Florida, and Caracoles. In Chanarcillo the upper part of the mines produce immense quantities of embolite, while in those of Caracoles, on the frontier of Bolivia, the chloride of silver is found in still greater quantities. And in general these are the two kinds of silver ore met with most frequently in the upper region of the veins ; while as the mines become deeper, the prevail ing ores are various kinds of pyrargyrite or red silver, polybasite, and argentite or the sulphuret of silver. Native silver, in smaller or larger masses, is generally found in the upper region, although at Chauarcillo, from the vein San Juan, at 325 feet below the surface, 800,000 ounces of metallic silver were extracted in a few months. Gold is also found in Magellan. Copper. Copper is more equally distributed than silver over the northern provinces, and is mostly found in the lower granitic and meta- morphic schistose series, where it is met with most abundantly as pyrites, although other ores are also common, such as bornite or variegated copper, the black oxide, malachite, and atacamite. Do- meykite, or arsenical copper, is found in the Calabozo mine, near Coquimbo ; the hydrosilicate and olivenite in the mine San Antonio, near Copiapo ; the vanadiate of copper in cavities in an arsenic- phosphate of lead, along with amorphous carbonate of lead and copper, in Mina Grande or La Marquesa, near Arqueros. That rare ore, the oxy chloride of copper, or atacamite, occurs at Remo- linos and Santa Eosa in veins in granite. The principal copper mines are in the provinces of Atacama, Coquimbo, and Aconcagua, and the most important are those of San Juan and Carrizal, near Copiapo, La Higuera, near Coquimbo, and Tamaya, about 40 milea from the coast, and 70 from Coquimbo. This last is a mountain district about 3500 fest above the sea, which produces about 150,000 cwts. a year of various kinds of sulphurets, of a produce from 9 to 64 per cent. Tambillos, 10 leagues from Coquimbo, produces prin cipally poor sulphurets ; Runeral, near the river, entirely poor car bonates ; Andacollo, carbonates, oxides, oxysulphurets, and native copper ; La Higuera, black sulphurets and pyrites ; Herradura and Huasco, carbonates and sulphurets of low produce. In the Cordil leras, above Huasco, are some mines containing ores of copper, silver, and lead combined together. Silver and copper mines are sold by the &quot;barra,&quot; or twenty-fourth part of the share of the mine. The most common ores of cobalt are the arsenate and the sulph- Cobalt. arsenate, containing from 19 to 22 percent, of cobalt. The most im portant mine is the Veta Blanca of San Juan. At Tambillos and Huasco there are mines containing glance cobalt, and arsenate or erythrine ; the former sort is frequently combined with nickel, which has been found in considerable quantities in a mine in the Cordilleras above Copiapo. The sulphuret of zinc is found in various parts, as well as anti mony, lead, manganese, bismuth, mercury, and molybdena. Iron ores of every description are very abundant ; amongst the most peculiar are coquimbite, or white copperas, and copiapite, or yellow copperas, much used by the inhabitants for dyeing and tanning, in the manufacture of ink, and for other purposes. Gypsum is found in immense beds, particularly in the province of Santiago. The fine massive variety called alabaster is found at the Salto de Agua, near to Santiago, of a quality nearly equal to that of Italy. Lapis lazuli is found in the Cordilleras above the province of Coquimbo, but it is impossible to convey large slabs to the coast, and the principal use of the small pieces is to make ultramarine ; but as the artificial equals the native in brilliancy of colour and permanency, it is not of much value. In the province of Atacama, where it borders on Bolivia, are extensive deposits of the nitrate of soda and the borate of lime and soda. Of great and increasing importance are the coal mines in southern Coal. Chili, extending along the coast from the province of Concepcion in 36 50 S. lat. to the Straits of Magellan, including some of the islands of Chiloe. The richest and at the same time the oldest coal mines are immediately south from the Biobio at Coronel, Lota, and Lebu. These coal mines are worked on the same plan as those in England Avith all the modern improvements and accessaries. Steamers coal at the pit s mouth, and a great deal of the ore that used to be carried to England to be smelted is now sent to Coronel and Lota. There are also extensive works for amalgamating silver and smelting ores in Copiapo, Chanarcillo, Carrizal, and Guayacan. Of the entire metal exports copper is 70 per cent, and silver 25. The amount of coal produced annually is increasing so rapidly that it will probably soon average from 2 to 3 millions of tons. The average value of the minerals exported is above 46 per cent, of the value of the whole of the exports, while that of agricultural pro ducts is about 44 per cent. Vegetable Kingdom. The Chilian flora contains 128 genera. Flora Twenty-two of the genera belonging to the continent of Europe are not indigenous to Chili, while, on the other hand, that country posseses thirty-six genera not belonging to Europe. Agriculture. Till Chili had to compete with California and Aus- Agrku! tralia in the foreign markets, the agricultural appliances were ol ture. that rude description introduced by the Spaniards. The ploughs were jointed sticks ; corn was trodden out by mares or oxen, winnowed by throwing it up against the wind, and ground in small primi tive mills. All this is now changed. The largest and most approved agricultural implements manufactured in the United States and in England are now employed, while the flour mills in power and machinery rival the best in Great Britain. Care is also being taken to improve the breeds by the introduction of horses, cattle, and sheep from England. About 82 per cent, of the entire surface of Chili is desert, mountain pasture, and forests, and only about 18 per cent, arable land. There are in the country 30,000 estates of various sizes, from many square miles to a few acres. The most important agricultural product, both for home consumption and exportation, is wheat, of which the average yield over the whole country is 7 for 1, and the average annual quantity from 1,305,000 to 1,380,000 quarters, of which about two-thirds are exported in grain, flour, and biscuit. In the province of Santiago the yield may be estimated at 12 for 1. Of larky the average annual production is 200,000 quarters, and the yield in the pro vinces in which it is cultivated 16 for 1. The value of the annual export averages 200,000. The rest is used as malt and food for horses. Maize is grown in every part of Chili excepting in Chiloe and the territory of Magellan, and yields 20 to 30 for one. In the green state it forms two of the principal national dishes, chocloa and humitas, eaten by both rich and poor. But the most universal national dish is supplied by the kidney bean (Phaseolus vultjaris) both in the green and the dry state. The average annual produce is 106,000 quarters, and the yield 9 for 1. South from the Maule, pease are more cultivated than kidney beans. The average produce io