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 were a source of great wealth to the owners, who supplicd forage to the pack mules. When the railway service took the place of pack-train transportation, Calama became only a way station on the railroad and has had to seek other sources of wealth. While it still attracts the caravan trade of a small dis- trict toward the southwest, the region of San Pedro de Atacama, it is to a large extent deprived of the advantages that its po- sition formerly gave it in this respect. On the other hand the rapid development of the nitrate establishments in ten or fifteen years after the beginning of its decline stimulated the production of forage for the thousands of mules employed on the caliche carts of the nitrate works, and Calama is now without exception the chief hay-producing center in the northern half of Chile.

Another instance is afforded by Tinogasta on the other side of the mountains. Tinogasta is connected with Cérdoba by rail, as Copiapé is connected with central Chile by the longi- tudinal railway. While Copiapé, like Tinogasta, is important because of its mines and irrigated fields, Tinogasta is impor- tant also because of a connection with three other towns to the north that supply the needs of a large semiarid basin, the bols6n of Fiambalé. All the towns are agricultural and are supported by irrigation, by which means crops of wheat, maize, alfalfa, oats, grapes, figs, oranges, pomegranates, olives, and other products are grown. Though the population is sparse and the farms scattered on the western side of the basin opposite these towns, their commercial needs are sufficient to have brought into being a number of considerable settlements in turn tributary to the villages that lie on the eastern side of the basin, where the four chief towns are located. In addition, both farms and villages have a connection with the Puna and the sierras, for the high pastures of these localities support flocks driven thither during the summer season. Connected with this community life and the entire group of activities on the eastern side of the mountains were the valleys on the west, of which Copiapé is the most important. With improving conditions as in the rest of Chile and with the Pacific steamship lines to serve the valley of Copiapé, its trade across the moun-