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 the hills and are driven down to the valleys ready for the mar- ket. In dry years they arrive lean and weak after their long journey across the lofty desert mountains and must be fed on rented pasture in the alfalfa meadows of the valley ranches. When dry years occur in succession the prices of forage may rise faster than the prices of meat, since the owner's draught animals are his first care. As a result the drovers stop their importations, for with rising prices the small buyer who is con- tinually becoming poorer at last is unable to buy meat at all. If the dry period continues, mules may be driven from Chile into Argentina, there to winter on cheaper pasture until the return of normal conditions in the desert.

Formerly the mining industry (described in detail in a suc- ceeding chapter) absorbed not only the chief part of men's energies in the Copiapé region but also most of the products. Cattle were then imported from Argentina for the mines, just as they are now imported for both the mines and the nitrate fields farther north. Great troops of hired mules were em- ployed by the mine owners to carry copper and silver ores to the coast ports. Both mules and cattle had to find subsistence in part on the desert upland, where short grasses spring up after the winter rains. In the history of the mines there are many instances of distress owing to the poor state of the pas- tures. Exploring expeditions were early sent out to discover new routes along valleys where showers had been reported by travelers, and in at least one instance a new route led to the de- velopment of a new port as short-lived as the pastures to which it owed its origin. When a period of dry years set in, all trans- portation had to be stopped, the ore accumulated at the mines, and chartered ships were sent back to Swansea either empty or half loaded. Thus Chilean mining company dividends were passed more than once at London because of the lack of a few showers in Chile.

It is the way of men everywhere to form stringent rules and regulations for the social group and to put into force a special