Identifier: earthitsinhabita941recl (find matches)
Title: The earth and its inhabitants ..
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Reclus, Elisée, 1830-1905 Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913 Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry), 1833-1912
Subjects: Geography
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
y have alsoconstructed the network of railways, some 250 miles long, connecting Iquique withLa Koria and the surrounding nitrate works. Beyond this point the lines ramifynorthwards, touching at all the nitrate beds stretching along the eastern slopes ofthe coast range in the Pampa de Tamarugal, and then returning in sharp curvesto the coast at the port of Pisagua. The mining industry has been completely transformed in this province ofTarapaca, which takes its name from an obscure village lying east of the salineTamarugal plateau, at the issue of a valley in the cordillera. Formerly silver wasthe chief source of attraction, and the centre of business was the village of Huanfa-jaya, about 10 miles east of Iquique, some 3,000 feet above the sea, in the midstof mountains abounding in metalliferous veins. Since the year 1556, M-hen thedeposits were discovered, the Huantajaya mines have yielded a quantity of silverestimated at about £70,000,000, or very nearly as much as Cerro de Pasco. At
Text Appearing After Image:
w o « ^ <l I ta TOPOGEAPHY OF CHILI. 451 present they are almost abandoned, and Iquique, which owed its existence to thesemines, has now turned its attention to the treatment and transport of the chemicalsubstances which, although, known to abound in the province, had hitherto beenneglected. The guano of the neighbouring islets was first attacked and exhaustedby the year 1827. When Frezier visited the place at the beginning of theeighteenth century, the planters of Peru were receiving a yearly supply of fromten to twelve small cargoes. A chain of workshops supplied with the best modern plant skirts the railwaywest of the Pampa de Tamarugal, and communicates by branches with the oficinas Fig. 170.—jQinQTTE.Scale 1 : 96,000.

Note About Images