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 fields would pass through Caldera on its way north from Ar- gentina. Opposition to such a railway from Salta to San Pedro de Atacama, farther north, or from Tinogasta to Copiapé, is of various sorts. It is argued by some Chileans that in case such a railway were built Argentina might obtain control of the nitrate fields, and Chile has not forgotten the lesson of the revolution of 1891, when the revolutionary party, by taking the nitrate fields, captured the principal revenues and equipped an army and a fleet at its leisure.

The ports on the desert coast of Atacama have altogether primitive equipments. About 1910 the imports at Caldera rose very rapidly, and one might suppose from the statistics that this meant a rapid increase in the business of the hinter- land. The real reason was that the port of Antofagasta was crowded on account of the rapid growth of the nitrate business at that time and the necessity for importing huge quantities of bulky railroad material. Merchants found that it took from thirty to forty days to free goods from the customs officials. To avoid the difficulty the Antofagasta merchants unloaded their goods at Caldera, paid the government duties, reloaded them, and discharged them at Antofagasta.

The original port for the valley of Copiapé was located at Puerto Viejo, in the Bay of Copiapé, and near the mouth of the Copiapé River; but there was no protection from heavy seas, and when mining interests were sufficiently developed a new port was sought and the old one completely abandoned. In disposing of the land at the new port the inhabitants were given situations as closely corresponding to those they had enjoyed in the old port as could be managed. With the devel- opment of Caldera and better transportation facilities con- necting with the railway inland, several other * ports,”’ little copper-exporting stations, for example Flamenco, north of Caldera, and Obispito, between Flamenco and Caldera, were abandoned and for a time were without any inhabitants at all.