Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/718

* CHILE, 624 CHILE. with an average of about 87 miles. The popula- tion was estiiiiati'd at the close of 18'J'J at 3, 110,08.5, iniluding 50,000 Indians. The area and population in 1885 and 1805 are shown in the foUowinir table: PROn.MES Area square miles Popula- tion (1885) Popula- tion (1895) Popula- tion per square mile 1895 MaKallaues (Ter.) {•Mlui 75,292 3,995 7,823 8,315 4,248 3,127 2,857 4,158 3,635 3,556 2,931 3,589 8,678 2,913 3,795 2,524 6,2-23 1,659 6,226 12,873 28,380 72,204 19,306 8,688 2,086 73,420 62,S09 C0.938 73.058 33,291 59,492 101,708 182,459 149,871 124,145 110,652 133,472 100,002 155,687 87,641 3-29,753 203,320 144,125 176,344 76,666 21,213 45,086 29,523 5,170 77,750 78.316 60,08- 59,237 78,221 98,322 88,749 18S,190 152,935 119,791 101,858 128,901 103.242 lo7..5C6 85.277 415.636 ■2-20.750 113.166 160,898 .59,713 44,086 89.751 24.100 W.'i Liaiu^uiiiue 10.0 7.3 13.9 25.1 34.3 Bio-Bfo 21.3 50.1 Kuble 43.0 Jlaule 40. S 29.2 Talca 35.0 35.4 41.5 OHiggins 33.7 79.5 Talpuraiso 134.9 19.3 Coquiiubo 12.4 2.1 Antotagasta 0.6 4.6 Tacna 2.8 290,895 2,527,320 2,712.436 9.3 Topography. The long coast rises nearly everywhere steeply from the sea. The region bor- dering it is called the Coast Cordillera. This is not a mountain range, but a diversified table- land rising at some points to 3300 feet, but usually much lower. It is composed of granite and mica-schists, skirted in some regions by Ter- tiary deposits which, in places, e.tend far in- land. Older sedimentary rocks do not occur in the coast regions excepting a narrow strip of chalk skirting the shore. Chiloe and the smaller islands to the south have the characteristics of the Coast Cordillera and are a continuation of it.

The topography of the country behind the Coast Cordillera may be divided into four parts. The most northern, extending from the northern border down to the neighborhood of Copiapo, about 27° 25' S., is a fairly even plain falling steeply toward the sea and rising to the Bolivian plateau from 12,000 to 14,000 feet above .sea- level. Here and there are terrace escarpments, and mountains rise in some places above the plateau; but there is no continuous range, and the numerous volcanoes, one of which, the Llullailaco, is liigher than Chiinborazo by about 100 feet, are completely isolated from one another. There are no east-and-west cordilleras in this part of Chile, which is crossed by the rail- road from the port of Antofagasta to Bolivia with no zigzags and without a single tunnel, large cutting, or great embankment. The second division, between 27° 25' and 33° S., is marked by a numlicr of transverse sjuirs run- ning from Die Cordilleras which form the east- ern boimdary to the ocean and separating the river valleys from one another. These sjiurs, in traveling north or south, are crossed by passes which are often very steep.

In the third section the mountainous coast lands are separated from the eordilleras l)y a lon- gitudinal valley which extends without interrup- tion from the transverse ridge of Chacabuco, north of Santiago, to Puerto ilontt, sloping from an elevation of 2300 feet in the north to sea- level at Puerto Jlontt; continuing luider the sea, it cuts oil' the island of Chiloe from the mainland. This central valley, about 600 miles in lengtli, was originally a huge cleft that was gradually filled up by detritus washed down from the Andes and the Coast Cordillera. The drift and alluvial deposits form a layer fully 330 feet thick through which no well has yet been sunk. The soil is very rich, and as the valley is trav- ersed and irrigated by numerous rivers from the Andes, it is the great agricultural region of Chile. In the northern part of the valley is San- tiago, the capital. in the fourtli section, south of Puerto Montt, the Cordilleras approach the sea, and the main- land consists of nothing but the slopes of the mountains and a strip of country lying to the east between some of the highest elevations of the Cordilleras and the water-parttjig l)etween the two oceans. This strip has long been in dis- pute between Argentina and Chile. Their boun- dary treaty defined the boundary as the water- parting formed by the high eordilleras. When it was ascertained that the water-parting did nut coincide with the line of greatest elevation, but was in large part east of it, the Chileans claimed all the eountrj' west of the water-parting, while Argentina insisted that the line of greatest eleva- tion formed the frontier. The dispute, referred to the British Government, was in process of arbitration in 1902. The chain of the Andes is composed not only of volcanic |)ro(luct.s. but also of upheaved strata of the older Cretaceous and Jurassic formations. It continues straight to Cape Horn, forming a labyrinth of fiords, head- ing in glaciers, islands, and peninsulas. This con- figuration is similar to that of the Norwegian coast and of North America, north of lati- tude 50°, The chief rivers run from the Andes straight to the sea through openings in the Coast Cordil- lera. Their princi])al tributaries, however, How from south to north in spite of the slope south- ward of llie central valley, a singular fact first observed by JJr. Peter MiiUer. The river Jlaule, whi(-h reaches the Pacific at about 35° S., is navigable from the central valley for light craft; farther south, the rivers Imperial, Biblio, Val- divia, and Bueno are navigated for some distance by small steamboats, JIany rivers rise east of the Cordilleras and for a space run norlli or south until they find an opening in the range through which they reach the ocean. A striking feature of the southern part of the central valhy is the existence of several large lakes at the western foot of the Andes. Most of the coast line is remarkably uniform and it is only in the region of the fiords, mainly south of the forty-second parallel, that excellent natural harbors are found; but commerce here is small and the harlwrs are little utilized. Val- ])araiso, the principal port of the west coast of South .merica, stands on a bay exposed to heavy seas, and vessels are wrecked in the harl)or every year. The jnirts to the north are merely roa<l- steads, the most important being seven little towns irom Arica to Taltal, known as the Nitrate Ports, because nitrate of soda, the leading export of the country, is shipped from them. The best shipping facilities south of Valparaiso are at