Page:Isaiah Bowman - Desert Trails of Atacama (1924).pdf/129

 cated for the mind of the public. The consequence is that the government comes in and is eventually as complicated as the life it controls. We have seen this in our own time, and the extent to which the operations of government are carried with each advance in industry and general development is so great as to raise the question whether government may not become so complicated that it may break down. We are not here con- cerned with the question, non-geographical in character, as to whether such a condition is inevitable or helpful or may prolit- ably be replaced by some other. We wish simply to picture a condition that brings about a growing dependence of a whole people on the government when they look to it to manage everything for them.

In no desert valley in the world can be found such com- plicated situations as these, and yet the stringency of govern- ment is just as great or even greater in so far as the control of the vital question of water is concerned. In all other mat- ters there is a freedom of action on the part of the individual and an absence of restraint in striking contrast to larger com- munities.

If Copiapó had no rains at all and if it enjoyed a regular supply of water from the Copiapó River, there would long ago have been an easy adjustment to natural conditions on the part of the population, That rains do come occasionally and that the river is as capricious in its flow as the mountain streams that feed it are conditions that create the chief in- ducement to gambling with nature. The year 1914 had more rainfall than had been known for many years (27 mm.). In 1904 and 1905 there was heavy rainfall, for it rained six or seven times during the winter season of May to July, and a rainy year is recorded if but two or three showers fall (see Table I, p. 44). In 1888 the first shower of the year came at the end of April, and a heavy shower on the 13th of August. Ac- cording to the history of the weather bureau at Copiapó, and of the mining companies, the Copiapó River did not reach the sea before 1888 so far as the records tell. Dependent chiefly