CHAPTER XITRANSPORT SYSTEMS

Railroads.—The Transandine Line.—Sea Transport.—Rivers and Lakes.—Roads.

Chile possesses 8600 kilometres or 5375 miles of railways, of state and private ownership that, running throughout her main territorial length north and south, and connected with the sea by a number of transverse lines, serve her better than any other South American country is served.

The rule all over the continent is that the seaports are the chief points where population is grouped and that from these ports railways have been driven inland as pioneers opening new country. Many of the regions thus served are immense, as a glance at the map shows; great fans of steel rails spread from Buenos Aires, S. Paulo and Montevideo, for example. But these lines were built to serve, and do almost exclusively serve, the needs of special localities lying inland from a coastal point, and only in a few instances are these regions systematically linked to the rest of the country.

The construction of Chile’s great longitudinal services was forced upon her, luckily, by the peculiar topographical form of this part of South America. All the long folded ribbon of the Central Valley is a natural highroad, and the railways follow very ancient trails.

From Tacna, in 18° of south latitude, lines run almost continuously to Puerto Montt at the edge of the Gulf of Reloncaví in 41′ 50″ of south latitude, a distance ofabout 1500 miles. From this great main artery of traffic touching all the important producing regions of the Central Valley, branches run west from thirty different points to the Pacific; the length of these connecting links is short, averaging 30 to 50 miles.

To the east a number of small lines extend to serve mining or agricultural regions, and three long arms have been flung across the mountain barrier of the Andes. One of these, the Transandine line, forms the only existing railway system connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of South America, the distance from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires totalling 1444 kilometres, or 896 miles, the journey taking two days.

The second line climbing the Andes is that extending from Antofagasta to La Paz in Bolivia, 863 kilometres or 518 miles. The third also runs to La Paz, from the former Peruvian port of Arica, a distance of 433 kilometres or 260 miles.

The policy of the Chilean Government as regards railways had its beginning in 1852, when President Manual Montt inaugurated construction of a line to unite Santiago and Valparaiso, a cart road built by Ambrose O’Higgins then serving these two important and growing cities. In a straight line the distance between Santiago and the port does not exceed 55 miles, but the coastal range rises in this region to unusual heights, and in order to negotiate the crest a curve was made northward passing by Limache, Quillota and Llai-Llai, the length totalling 187 kilometres, inclusive of the section now forming a part of the great longitudinal system. The first part of the line completed, between Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, was opened to traffic in 1855; the extension to Limache, in 1856; to Quillota, in 1857; construction of the San Pedro tunnel, together with delays resulting from the revolutionary troublesof 1859, held back completion of the extension to Calera until 1861; Llai-Llai was reached in 1862, and the whole line opened to traffic through from Valparaiso to Santiago in September, 1863. A new line is now planned to follow a shorter route via Casablanca.

At the same time that this sea-to-capital link was commenced the Government authorised the construction of a main line running south by a private company, the Ferrocarril del Sur, while in the north a number of railway enterprises were also undertaken by individuals or companies, chiefly with the object of serving mineral regions. The majority of these companies were capitalised in London, although the concessions were in some cases obtained by American promoters such as Henry Meiggs, afterwards well known in connection with Peruvian railroad building, and the genial William Wheelwright. Hundreds of young British and American engineers entered Chile at this period of early construction, while native-born Chileans still lacked technical training, and scores of them remained in the country permanently, settling and founding families. It was a tremendous era of building which lacked coherence but nevertheless was intelligent and forceful; every strip of line had its soundraison d’être, served its immediate purpose, and not only marked an industrial movement but remains today as a permanent contribution to the transport needs of Chile.

Actually the first railway line to operate in Chile was the Copiapó line running from that celebrated and then flourishing copper mining centre to the little port of Caldera, 55 kilometres distant. Construction was begun in 1850 and the line was opened to traffic in 1852, the Copiapó railway thus achieving its place as the second oldest railroad in South America. First place belongs to the Demarara line in British Guiana.

By the time that the Valparaiso-Santiago railway was completed the southerly trunk line had been pushed as far as San Fernando, with extensions surveyed to Curicó and Talca. Curicó was reached in 1867 and was promptly sold by the private constructors to the Government of Chile, already marking out its continued policy of state ownership of transportation systems. Until about 1870, when both imported and native coal began to come into use, the fuel burnt by the locomotives of the central sections was Chilean wood, a circumstance which was material in helping to destroy the woodland of Central Chile.

To the north, Carrizal had a mule tramway running thirty miles from the copper mines to the sea; it was superseded in 1863 by a steam line. The Coquimbo railway was begun in 1856, afterwards taken into the state system but originally a mining line; as also was the Chañaral strip, linking Pueblo Hundido, another of the early pioneers; the Tongoy railway, begun in 1867, and running to Ovalle; the line connecting Vilos and Illapel, and that joining Huasco and Vallenar.

By the year 1885 the Chilean Government owned 950 kilometres of railway, while private companies owned 1254 kilometres. The result of the War of the Pacific gave a spurt to extension of nitrate railways, several of which had been begun in the great salitre regions, while the developing industry brought public revenues to the Moneda, permitting the acquisition or extension of state lines. Twelve years later the Chilean Government was operating 2000 kilometres of railways, while private owners operated about 2300 kilometres.

In 1910 the Government had extended its lines to Puerto Montt in the south, and ran north to meet the nitrate railways, a gap remaining in the latter section between Cabildo and Pintados, where the lines servingthe Tarapacá fields reached their farthest southern point. An arrangement was reached for completion with two British syndicates. The Government now controls over 4600 kilometres of line, while private owners control about 4000 kilometres.

The state lines provide comfortable and cheap passenger transport, carrying goods also at reasonable rates. Travel is an inexpensive pleasure, the service is punctual, and equipment good. It is doubtful if more exquisite scenery can be enjoyed anywhere in the world at a like cost. But, like many richer and more experienced governments, that of Chile consistently loses money on her national lines. Only during the busy years of 1915, 1916 and 1917, when depleted steamship service sent more traffic to the railways, did the state lines show a profit. Since the Armistice, losses have been increased, 1919 ending with deficits variously computed at 14,000,000 and 40,000,000 pesos.

Previous to 1918 the private lines always earned profits, but disorganisation of the nitrate and copper industries, together with the low rates sustained, caused considerable entries on the wrong side of the ledger during 1918 and 1919.

With two exceptions the Government lines form a homogeneous network extending north and south and flinging out arms to vital points. But there are two isolated lines. One is the strip on the Island of Chiloé, connecting Ancud with Castro, 98 kilometres long; the second is the Arica to La Paz railway, 438 kilometres in length, joining this old Peruvian port to the capital of Bolivia.

This line is of special political interest, besides presenting a fine engineering feat—for it reaches an altitude of 13,000 feet above sea level. Forty kilometresare on the rack system. The line was built in accord with an agreement made with Bolivia after the War of the Pacific, the same Treaty that deprived Bolivia of her coastal belt promising her a new outlet to the sea as a seal of peace. The Arica-La Paz railway cost £2,900,000, was opened to traffic in 1914, and the section traversing Bolivian soil, 238 kilometres long, is to become the property of Bolivia in 1928.

The private lines represent an investment of 238,000,000 pesos of eighteen pence, or £16,800,000, as against the State’s capital expenditure of 394,000,000 pesos, or £29,550,000. The most important group of private lines are those serving the great nitrate pampas, and the largest operators are the Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway Company. The lines of this English system date their inauguration from 1873, extend over 925 kilometres, of which 482 lie within Bolivian territory, and carry traffic from Antofagasta to La Paz at the same time serving a great nitrate area. Branches run to the salitre of Boquete, to Chuquicamata, to Conchi Viejo and the Collahuasi mines, within Chilean confines. Equipment and management upon this line, with its excellent dining and sleeping cars, are of a high order; total capital invested, £8,550,000. In addition to this system, the company has since 1916 operated the northern section of the Government’s longitudinal railway, about 800 kilometres long. Next in importance of the private railways is a network connecting the nitrate fields of Tarapacá with the ports of Iquique and Pisagua, owned and operated by the Nitrate Railways Company Ltd. (London). The first concession for building the line was obtained in 1860, the total investment amounts to over £2,000,000, and the company operates 578 miles of line, of 1.43 metres gauge. The services rendered by this well-equippedline are best realised when the number of nitrate oficinas utilising the railroad are added up and found to total sixty-nine.

The Taltal Railway Company, Ltd., is another British line, operates 298 kilometres of track of 1.06 gauge, and links the salitre pampas of that part of the Atacama desert lying within Antofagasta province with the port of Taltal. The investment totals £1,050,000.

Also British is the railway connecting a large group of nitrate fields with the port of Caleta Coloso, the Cia. del Ferrocarril de Aguas Blancas, with 221 kilometres of track of 1 metre gauge; the network belonging to the Compañia de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Junin, operating 89 kilometres of 0.76 gauge track and serving oficinas near the coast of Tarapacá; the lines of the Cia. de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Agua Santa, uniting nitrate works at Agua Santa, Negreiros and Huara with the port of Caleta Buena, 109 kilometres; and the Anglo-Chilean Nitrate and Railway Company, Ltd., linking the nitrate pampas of Toco with the port of Tocopilla, 122 kilometres in length.

Also of British construction, capitalisation and operation is a short line, dating from 1855, connecting the city of Tacna with the port of Arica, 63 kilometres of 1.43 metre gauge track; and formerly British, but sold in 1920 to the Lota Coal-mining Company is the railway connecting the city of Concepción with the ports of Coronel and Lota and with the flourishing coal mine of Curanilahue. The British owners were the Arauco Company, Ltd., operating 103 kilometres of 1.68 metre gauge track. The line from Los Sauces to Lebu, whose construction was suspended during war years, is also a British enterprise.

Chilean capital and enterprise is responsible for several private lines, as the Ferrocarril de Copiapó,whose first conception was due to Juan Mouat of Valparaiso, in 1845. The original line connected Copiapó with Caldera Port, 81 kilometres, but extensions were afterwards added to Pabellón, and thence, after acquiring a mule tramway to the Chañarcillo mines, to Chañarcillo, another ramification running northeast towards the Argentine border but terminating at Puquios. The gauge of the line is 1.43 metres, and the length 231 kilometres. Also Chilean is the Ferrocarril de Carrizal y Cerro Blanco, uniting Carrizal Port to the copper mines of Cerro Blanco, due east, with a southerly branch to manganese deposits near Chañar Quemada and Astillas and another to the copper mines of Jarilla, the line terminating at Merceditas. The line with its branches has a gauge of 1.27 metres and a length of 184 kilometres.

The Ferrocarril del Llano de Maipo, running between Santiago and Puente Alto, 22 kilometres, is Chilean; so also is the electric line between Santiago and San Bernardo, 15 kilometres, and a similar link between Concepción and Talcahuano, as well as the short railway connecting Concepción and Penco. A new Chilean railway runs between Quintero Port and Cousiño, while the lines serving coal regions of the south are practically all Chilean today, but their length and direction is subject to change according to need.

The Ferrocarril Transandino por Antuco is the beginning of an ambitious Chilean project to cross the Andean barrier into Argentina at a low-level pass. The line starts from the station of Monte Aguilar on the state longitudinal railway, in the province of Concepción, runs almost due east towards the volcano Antuco and Lake Laja, and has a present extension of about 85 kilometres. It has a metre gauge track, will have a length of 129 kilometres when it reaches theArgentine frontier, the mountain pass which it is planned to traverse having a height of but 1862 metres above sea level, or not much more than 3000 feet. Within sight of this pass the river Neuquen has its rise, and it has been contemplated to follow its valley southeastward to connection with the line running from Bahia Blanca.

A Chilean trading and cattle company with headquarters in Valdivia is constructing a new southerly line, running eastward from the longitudinal station of Collilelfu, about forty miles from Valdivia, to Lake Riñihue: here a line of connecting steamers will carry passengers farther to the east, and a second strip of railway will connect with the lake of Pirihuaico, whose easterly point almost touches the Argentine border. About 40 kilometres of this line is open to traffic.

Far south, running from Punta Arenas to the coal mines of Loreto, is another small Chilean line of nine kilometres.

Of North American construction and operation is a 25 kilometre ore-carrying line between Caleta Cruz Grande and the Tofo iron mines; a narrow-gauge private line of 70 kilometres joining the copper mines of El Teniente (Braden Copper Co.) to Rancagua town; and a link between Pueblo Hundido and the copper beds of Potrerillos. German interests (Gildemeister & Co.) constructed a small line, for the exclusive use of a related copper mining company, from Challocollo to Cerro Gordo, in Tarapacá, with an extension to La Granja, in 1897, 36 miles of narrow-gauge track.

Investment in private lines (most of which are open to the public, but are distinguished from the state-owned railways) is reckoned at a total of 238,000,000 Chilean pesos of eighteen pence, divided amongst British companies, 209,000,000 pesos; Chilean, 24,000,000;and North American, 5,000,000. The German investment of two or three millions does not appear in statistics of Chile since 1916. The former German-operated tramways of Santiago and Valparaiso have passed into British hands and are now controlled by S. Pearson & Son, Ltd.

Three new Andes-crossing lines are contemplated in Chile. Two are planned to the north of Santiago, the third to the south. The latter is already in construction as part of the state system, running from Cajón station, just above Temuco, through Cautín province eastwards. The mountain barrier is here below 5000 feet in height, and negotiation of the Andean section, plus extension to the Argentine line running west from Bahia Blanca, presents no difficulties beyond that of finding sufficient capital for construction. Chile’s eastward extension will traverse the green fields of the Lonquimay Valley, crossing by the Pass of Maullin Chileno.

To the north, one project indicates a line extending east from Antofagasta through Boquete and Huitiquina on the Argentine frontier, and joining with Argentine systems at Salta; another plans a railway to continue the branch running out from Coquimbo along the Elqui Valley to Algarrobal and Rivadavia. Crossing the Andes by the Tortolas pass, the line would link with the Argentine system of Rioja province. Regarding the two first-named lines, the Argentine and Chilean Governments have agreed upon a close mutual policy, and work upon unified plans is being rapidly advanced.

Railway lines crossing the South American continent are sometimes said to be of less pressing importancesince the opening of the Panama Canal rendered the West Coast more readily accessible from the western seaports of Europe and the eastern coasts of both North and South America. It is true that certain overseas commerce is served by the Panama route, exactly as it was encouraged when steam navigation made it possible for seamen to face the Magellanic Strait without misgiving, yet no one with knowledge of the internal needs of South America doubts the necessity for strengthened transcontinental links. Canada, with 8,000,000 inhabitants, built two transcontinental railroads: South America, with 75,000,000 people, has but one direct cross-country line completed.

This single railway from sea to sea—connecting Santiago de Chile with Buenos Aires by a two days’ journey of 900 miles—is a remarkable piece of work, owing inspiration and accomplishment to the Anglo-Chilean engineer brothers, Juan and Mateo Clark. It has been open to international traffic as a through line since 1910, its operation stimulating not only the commerce of Western Europe and Chile, but aiding the development of brisk trade between Chile and Argentina. It was a reopening of ancient paths. Before and to a lessened extent during colonial times a score of passes over the Andes were in common use and the interchange of persons and goods continuous. Following Independence and the creation of sharp and sometimes jealous divisions between the republics, the countries were separated as never previously; old transcontinental trails were neglected. This neglect was increased by the interest taken in South America by the rich countries of Europe, the establishment of shipping lines to all the ports of the young communities, and the stream of gold and people directed towards the development of commerce and public services. Fora century each South American state turned its face to the sea, economically and intellectually. The creation of the Transandine railway was the first deliberate conquest of the Andean barrier between eastern and western nations of the continent. A few miles of construction only are needed to connect up Bolivian railways with the northerly Argentine system. Ecuador is planning a link with the Amazonian headwaters to create a route for merchandise similar to that of North Bolivia, with outlet at Pará; but lack of population and production through vast interior regions has acted as a deterrent against transcontinental plans even more than engineering difficulties. These have been surmounted in South America in a number of instances, the mountain-climbing lines of Brazil on the east and of each of the four countries to the west offering famous instances of response to industrial need. But without the soundraison d’êtreof Mendoza’s flourishing existence at the eastern foot of the Andes the present Transandine line would have waited longer for its creation.

Juan and Mateo Clark, planning the line, obtained a concession from the Argentine Government in 1872, and from the Chilean in 1874. Money was scarce and engineering problems many, so with a view to lightening the burden the route was divided into four sections, and construction performed by the group of corresponding companies. The longitudinal line built by the Chilean Government already had run a branch from Llai-Llai in an easterly direction towards the mountains, culminating in the station of Los Andes at 2733 feet above sea level—the old Santa Rosa de los Andes. This railway followed the ancient mule road towards Juncal and the Uspallata pass en route for Mendoza and Buenos Aires, and the eventual constructionof the Chilean Transandine practically adopted the same course from Los Andes to the Argentine frontier in the heights. But this section, although but 70 kilometres in length, presented the worst difficulties and was the last completed.[7]

7. On the Chilean side a rack system is employed for 23 kilometres; the maximum grade is 8 per cent. On the Argentine Transandine the rack system is employed for 14 kilometres, with grades nowhere reaching more than 6½ per cent.

Three companies undertook construction of the strip between the Argentine frontier and Buenos Aires, 1373 kilometres long. The mountain section to Mendoza (2481 feet altitude) was built by the Argentine Transandine Company; Mendoza to Villa Mercedes (with a branch running north to San Juan, site of an ancient post-house), by the Argentine Great Western Company; and Villa Mercedes to Buenos Aires by a company subsequently called the Buenos Aires and Pacific Company. Money supplies came from London, where the companies are domiciled.

The Villa Mercedes-Mendoza link of 356 kilometres was completed and opened in 1886; the pampas-crossing section between Villa Mercedes and Buenos Aires, 692 kilometres, in 1888. This was all plain sailing, but serious difficulties were encountered in the mountain sections. Work began on the Argentine side in 1887, and upon the Chilean in 1889; in the latter case the indefatigable Clark brothers gave not only devoted energy but their own funds, suspending operations in 1892, after 27 kilometres were built, when their capital was exhausted. A year later part of the Argentine Transandine section was opened to traffic, but the operation of completed lines on the east had the effect of diverting all traffic from Mendoza to Buenos Aires instead of promoting international commerce as had been contemplated.

In 1904 a new firm, the Transandine Construction Company, London domiciled and financed, took over the Chilean section from the Clark brothers and their creditors, and finally joined the Argentine Transandine at the frontier station of Las Cuevas in 1910.

The old cart and mule road crossing the Cumbre rose to an altitude of 14,500 feet, and was, during the period of snow-storms, usually due between April and October, shut to all but the hardiest travellers. To obviate this ascent the builders of the Transandine drove a tunnel through the head of the Andean barrier, at an altitude of 10,521 feet above sea level; the tunnel “de la Cumbre” traverses a length of more than 3000 metres, the two Transandine lines meeting within its length, at an altitude of 10,515 feet. With greater capital to spend, the Chilean Transandine constructors would have driven the tunnel through the mountains at a level about 3000 feet lower to avoid the storms raging about the higher regions, and ultimately this work will probably be performed: but it entails construction of a tunnel four times the length of that in existence.

Below the tunnel on the Chilean side the company shields the line with strong snow sheds, but here again lack of sufficient capital prevents the additions necessary if the line is to be safeguarded all the year round; at present there is danger of enforced stoppage as soon as the first heavy snows fall, blocking the line with twenty or thirty feet of drift and avalanches. More than once traffic has been suspended for three or four months.

On the Chilean Transandine Railway.

Laguna del Portillo: near the Transandine line.

Santa Rosa de Los Andes: Chilean Terminus of the Transandine Railway.

In spite of difficulties, however, the line has proved to be of immense value to international traffic, has shortened the distance between West European ports and Valparaiso by over 2000 miles as compared with the Magellanic route, and 500 miles as compared with the Panama journey. With the operation of the Panama Canal the route between New York or Halifax and Valparaiso was shortened so much that it is a saving of time for a traveller wishing to reach Buenos Aires from a North American point on the eastern side to journey via the Canal and the Transandine. Buenos Aires has also been brought into closer touch with the Orient and Australasia, while Chilean towns are in quick communication with the markets of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

Brisker traffic in both passengers and merchandise will be developed when unity in administration is in working order. But this has been long delayed, owing to the troubles connected with construction days. In 1894 the Argentine Transandine, observing with misgiving the remote prospect of completion of the Chilean link, formed an agreement by which the Argentine Great Western operated the section open to traffic, this arrangement being renewed in 1901 and 1905. In 1907, after some skirmishing and the commencement of a competitive line to Mendoza, the Buenos Aires and Pacific Company obtained control of the Argentine Great Western, and at the same time of the agreement controlling the Argentine Transandine, which line it guarantees from losses threatened by blocking of traffic through snow. Thus for many years the Buenos Aires and Pacific held the reins of all rail operations between the capital of the Argentine and the frontier of Chile, and was frequently charged with so arranging freight prices as to send all Mendoza traffic eastwards, while discouraging commercial interchange between Chilean markets and the prosperous Mendoza vicinity. The Chilean Transandine constantly pressed for a revision of management, proposing that the Argentine Transandine should be separated from the BuenosAires and Pacific and united with the Chilean mountain-climbing link, so that a single administration should operate the line between Los Andes and Mendoza, the terms of the lease held by the Buenos Aires & Pacific Line allowing of cancellation at twelve months’ notice.

Chilean and Argentine public opinion agreed upon the matter, the help of the two Governments was enlisted, special meetings held under the auspices of the Sub-Committee on Railway Transport of the Pan-American Conference held in Buenos Aires in 1916, an International Commission appointed to arbitrate upon goods rates between the two countries, in 1917, and a draft proposition approved in early 1918 between the diplomatic representatives of Argentina and Chile in London, acting in consultation with the directorates of the two Transandine companies. Chile agreed in August of 1918, and, in amicable agreement, the Government of Argentina, in December, 1919, accepted the proposal in principle; arrangements were made by which the new contracts with the Transandine lines should be simultaneously discussed in the Congresses of both countries. In early 1922 agreements were complete, details of unification of the railways was decided, provision made for new financing of the improved system, and tentative arrangements outlined with a view to new and liberal tariffs between the two countries, tending to encourage traffic not only via Mendoza, but also between North Chile and the Salta region, as well as between South Chile and Eastern Patagonia when the projected new Transandine links are completed.

As regards sea transport Chile is in an enviable situation with her immense coastline giving speedy accessto all inhabited parts of her territory. It is true that with a few exceptions, of which Talcahuano is the most notable, Chilean ports are little more than open roadsteads, exposed both to the southwesterly gales and to the dreaded “northers”; but modern engineering is doing much to solve the problem of safe havens where visiting vessels may anchor in safety. The same difficulty applies to almost the whole of the South American West Coast, and for centuries sailing vessels feared the region; during Spanish colonial times it was so common a thing for a ship to spend from six to twelve months on the passage between Callao and South Chile that when Captain Juan Fernández, running out southwest for a thousand miles, and afterwards turning almost due east for Chilean ports, managed to avoid the cruel coastal gales and made the passage in thirty days, he was haled before the Inquisition as a wizard. The Inquisitors, however, after careful examination of the captain’s papers, set him free, applauding his sagacity. From that day the group of islands named to commemorate the navigator’s skill became the beacon for vessels sailing to Valparaiso from the North, although ships returning to Peru still hugged the coast.

It is not uncommon for sailing vessels to be wrecked off the difficult southerly coast, with its innumerable indentations and furious storms, but the worst year of the present century was 1911, when 37 steamers as well as, by a strange coincidence, an exactly equal number of sailing ships, were cast away off Chile. That was a year of exceptional storms, but out of 32 years between 1887 and 1919, only seven passed without a record of wrecks; it is to the credit of the excellent surveying and charting work of the Hydrographic Department of the Chilean Navy that the path of thenavigator has been rendered plainer, while the Chilean Government has in hand a series of plans for the better protection of ports—lacking only the financial sinews of war against wind and tide.

Of Chile’s fifty-four ports of major and minor importance, perhaps thirty are visited by international shipping. But of these only about fifteen display brisk commerce. Arica, visited by 400 foreign ships annually and over 300 Chilean vessels, connects directly with Bolivia; Pisagua, Junin, Caleta Buena, Iquique, Tocopilla, Mejillones and its younger sister Antofagasta, Coloso and Taltal, are nitrate ports, bustling when nitrate markets prosper and almost idle during the most depressed period of 1921. The copper ports of Chañaral, Caldera and Carrizal Bajo have suffered more than Coquimbo, with fruit and other farm exports to add to her diminished list of minerals. Valparaiso, chief port of Chile, receives about one thousand national and three hundred foreign ships yearly, one-third of the whole exports entering here, although Antofagasta and Iquique are the big exporters. In normal years, Valparaiso receives 1,400,000 tons of cargo, of which nearly half is coal. Farther south, Talcahuano, the chief naval base and the port for flourishing Concepción, receives about 400 vessels annually; Coronel, exporting and bunkering Chilean coal, receives about 700; Corral, the port for Valdivia, is visited by some 200 ships yearly; and Punta Arenas in the Strait of Magellan, does business with twelve hundred Chilean and about one hundred and thirty foreign vessels each year.

Coquimbo, the “Capital of North Chile.”

Ancud, the Port of Chiloé Island.

Zapallar, a beautiful Chilean Watering Place.

These ports will probably continue to be the great outlets for Chile’s most thriving regions, but they are insufficient to serve the needs of a long list of growing districts, and in spite of much good planning are still inadequately equipped for the increasing work required. A special Government Commission, lately considering the question of more sea gateways, has decided that forty or so of the points along the Chilean coast should be improved for the reception of international shipping.

The Commission’s recommendations necessitate the expenditure of at least six million pounds sterling, or let us say the whole of the taxes upon nitrate exports during one prosperous year. The sum will in all probability be raised, according to need, year by year, by means of exterior loans.

According to the projects, Valparaiso will be allotted a further million and a half pounds; Valdivia, Lebu, Talcahuano and Constitución, about one million each; Puerto Montt, a preliminary £150,000; Tomé (at the north of Concepción Bay) and Pichilemu, £40,000 each; with smaller sums for Iquique and Puerto Saavedra (Imperial Bajo).

Valparaiso port works have been since 1912 in the hands of a British engineering firm, and have given a good deal of trouble, storms more than once undoing part of the construction work; in the early months of 1922 there were completed two quays totalling 840 metres in length, a breakwater of 288 metres, and a coal wharf 200 metres long by 30 metres wide; work upon the mooring jetty, the extension of the old Fiscal Mole (dating from 1883, and the only means for transferring passengers and cargo until the new quays were constructed), the Prat Quay, warehouses and railway is also well advanced, in spite of long delays caused by the European War. There is plenty of water—in fact, too much for facile construction of jetties or breakwaters, the bottom shelving rapidly from 39 feet at the mooring jetty, and offering, less than 200 feetfrom shore, nothing but mud as foundation. In consequence, the outer section of the breakwater cost £560 per linear foot to build. Since 1906 Valparaiso has suffered from no serious earthquake, but slight shocks are not infrequent and must be taken into consideration in the case of construction in the sea as well as upon the land. Rise and fall of the tide at Valparaiso does not exceed three feet.

The Nitrate Ports have earned more money than any other points of outflow for Chilean products, but safe, adequate modern havens for shipping are not to be created in a day or even in a decade; and the same difficulties of the open roadstead and prevailing winds have delayed the completion of adequate facilities even at that busy commercial stronghold, Antofagasta. Comprehensive plans are, however, in course of development, and work has only been delayed by the depression of 1921.

Port improvements at Talcahuano are being carried out by a French company, and the main work is unlikely to be completed for a few years, although it has been attacked. Talcahuano lies within the deeply indented Bay of Concepción, the best naturally-protected haven upon the West Coast, and is further shielded from the effects of northerly winds by the pretty island of Quiriquina, once a rendezvous for pirates, and during the War the place of internment for several hundred Germans, including sailors from theDresden. Talcahuano possesses a floating dock and equipment as the first naval base of Chile, and when the present plans have been developed this port will be one of the best in South America.

The creation of a secure port at the mouth of the fine river Imperial, Puerto Saavedra, will be comparatively easy when the projected cut is made from BudiBay through a sandy bank into the river, safe from all storms. From this point the stream is to be dredged for 20 miles up to the town of Carahue, where a branch railway connects with Temuco and the Longitudinal system. Another important dredging work is projected along the stream of the Valdivia from Corral port. This haven of old foundation, nestling under its cliffs, has been for centuries of necessity the stopping-place for vessels with cargo and passengers for Valdivia City, twelve miles inland, all traffic being transshipped up river by small steamers, barges, etc. By the new plans a channel will be deepened to permit the passage of ocean-going steamers to the beautifully placed riverine city, whence rail connection opens the most fertile agricultural country, immense forestal zones and a large coal-mining region.

At pretty Constitución, where the dangerous bar is so much dreaded that its condition is always signalled to vessels before they venture to approach, plans include the dredging of a channel and construction of breakwaters to prevent silting-up.

Puerto Montt, at the end of the Longitudinal, and lying within the Gulf of Reloncaví, is a recent creation whose equipment as a port receiving international vessels is still only on paper; this Llanquihue region, with its lumber and sheep industries, is fast developing, and will invite a great deal of tourist traffic when its transport facilities are equal to its glorious scenery. Port construction problems are chiefly due to the 25-foot rise and fall of the tide. At Punta Arenas, another new port of remarkably rapid and vigorous growth, vessels are still obliged to lie out in the Strait while cargo and passengers are transferred by lighters and small boats, but the steady prosperity of this zone as well as its position as a port of call for internationalsteamers render imperative the creation of modern port facilities.

Chile has one hundred and twenty rivers, but can count no more than five hundred miles as navigable. This navigability is again limited to small vessels only, to which another five hundred miles of lake waterways are also open; motor boats and canoes are able to traverse another four hundred or so of rivers, but these are frequently broken by cascades and falls.

In pre-Spanish times the lakes and rivers of Chile leading towards the Andes undoubtedly served as channels for Indian traffic; the Rio Blanco, Juncal and Aconcagua led towards the mountains into what is today Argentine territory from the populous Central region of Chile, while the lower passes were crossed to the south by way of many river valleys and by such lakes as Llanquihue and Todos los Santos, a short strip only intervening between the latter beautiful water and the lovely Nahuel Huapi in East Patagonia. During colonial times, with the depopulation of the wilder country and the concentration of towns upon the seaboard, this traffic diminished and commercial exchange was limited to ocean transport, with, however, an increasing intercourse with Argentina when the then Chilean provinces of Mendoza, San Luis and San Juan developed trade with the new colonies of Buenos Aires. But below Chiloé the territory remained unknown, and it has only been within recent years that the southern lakes have been visited and surveyed.

Taltal, a Nitrate Port of North Chile.

Puerto Corral, the Port of Valdivia, South Chile.

As to the rivers during colonial times, if they were not treated with equal neglect, their capricious ways were permitted to absolve them from any great usefulness, and it has only been within the last twenty years that serious studies have been made with a view to restraining, preserving and freeing the torrential streams characteristic of the short, steep slope of Chile. All Chilean rivers are snow-fed, and are extraordinarily and violently augmented when the Andean snows melt; the northern floods are more uncontrolled than those of the south, tearing down from greater heights through open country where nothing but, eventually, heat and sand offer a check. Many disappear in the desert while still far away from the sea. The southerly rivers, flowing from lesser heights and passing through long forestal areas, are more constant in volume. It is only below Lebu, in 38 degrees of south latitude, that any Chilean river becomes even nominally “navigable,” with the sole exception of a dozen miles of the Rapel.

Nevertheless, the longest Chilean river is in the north, flowing across Chile’s widest province, Antofagasta; this is the Loa, fertilising oases in the desert and sheltering little groups of people today just as it offered a livelihood to indigenous folk in pre-Spanish days. The Loa, sometimes called the Calama, is three hundred miles long, but for half the year is not more than a thread at the bottom of a wide gully. Its nearest northerly rival is the Copiapó, about 170 miles, watering fruitful valleys like the capricious but equally invaluable streams the Huasco, Elqui, Hurtado, Limari and Petorca. A succession of rivers in the Central Region are untamed floods in the rainy season—the Aconcagua, Juncal, Blanco, Volcán, Colorado, Maipo, Mapocho, Cachapoal and Rapel—none more than 125 miles long. Three or four of these rivers will be harnessed in the near future to yield hydro-electric force. Below to the southward, the Mataquito,the Maule of ancient fame, the Itata and the exquisite Bio-Bio are all outside the navigable list, and the latter is distinguished by its exceptional length of about 200 miles as well as its beauty.

First among navigable rivers as one goes from north to south is the fine Imperial, with a watershed of about five thousand square miles, and a length of one hundred miles; it has a magnificent and constant flow, but only fifteen miles are navigable. The Toltén owns six navigable miles; the Valdivia, 125 for small boats and about 25 for larger craft; the Bueno is in a different category, for, with a length of not much more than one hundred miles, it has about 50 miles of navigable channel. The Bueno, in fact, is the outflow of two lovely lakes, Ranco and Maihue, and discharges 600 cubic metres of water per second, a flow second to none among Chilean rivers.

Still farther southward, the Maullín has thirty navigable miles; the Palena about twenty; the Aysen, no more than twelve. And next comes that fine and little-known river the Baker, whose length is said to be equal to that of the Loa in the far north, about two hundred and eighty miles, of which nearly fifty are navigable. Outside that list are the Bravo, Pascua and Serrano, except for the canoes of the south-dwelling Indians.

Of Chilean lakes, Llanquihue is the largest, with a superficial area of 1400 square miles; its great depth, averaging 360 feet near the shore, suggests that this is the crater of an old volcano. Skirted by the south end of the Longitudinal railway, Llanquihue counts several ports, with Varas as the oldest-established and the largest. This lake, with its near companion, Todos los Santos, is traversed by Chilean steamers; and there isregular traffic upon Riñihue and Ranco. The former lake is reached by rail to Los Lagos station, horses taking travellers thence to the edge of Riñihue, about 25 miles; a wild but glorious stretch of typical Chilean woodland, clothing the sides of a lovely valley, lies between Riñihue and Ranco, with its brilliant turquoise blue waters, and abrupt sides covered with ferns, foxgloves, fuchsias and a close growth of trees of bright green foliage. Small steamers cross the lake to Llifen, where there are famous curative sulphur baths.

From Puerto Montt southward is a long series of fiords, islands, indentations and inland channels whose intricacy and extent are unequalled even by the famous fiords of Norway. For natural beauty the Norwegian complex cannot compare with that of Chile, for no woodland exists in Europe that rivals the pathless, luxuriant, flower-hung forests of Chiloé Island, the Andean spurs of Western Patagonia, the broken archipelago of Chonos, and the noble mountains of the Strait of Magellan. Rich ferns and flowering shrubs, wild bamboo and pines and beeches, reach to the water’s edge. Through the thousand miles of this complicated chain of inlets and islands between Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas runs an almost continuous channel, continuation of the long depression which creates the deep fold of the great Chilean central valley. Steamers seeking sheltered waters from the Strait of Magellan northward need not emerge into the open Pacific, but turn north by Smyth Channel and run inside the barrier formed by Hanover and Wellington Islands. But at the Gulf of Peñas vessels are forced out to the turbulent ocean, a thin strip of land barring the way to the calmer waters of the Moraleda Canal. Chilean engineers have long projected a cut through this Ofqui bar, joining the mainland to Taitao peninsula;for it is only 7000 feet wide; no doubt this necessary help to navigation will be given before long. With this opening effected, small vessels will be able to pass from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas and Tierra del Fuego by a sheltered waterway, passing great forests, majestic glaciers, frowning snow-capped mountains, stark headlands and a thousand inlets and islands, a long panorama of splendid beauty.

Vessels of all nations visit Chile, Australasia and Japan sending regular lines to compete with the shipping of Europe, North America and Chile’s sister South American republics, the total tonnage of visiting ships amounting on an average to over twelve million, of which less than five hundred thousand tons represent sailing vessels. Sea transport on the Chilean coast has undergone an immense transformation since Cochrane brought the first steamer ever seen upon the West Coast, the littleRising Star, in 1818. Traffic from North America and Europe comes today in a considerable proportion through the Panama Canal, but the next few years will probably witness a development of tourist traffic through the Magellanic waterway and to such beautiful Chilean islands as Juan Fernández, with its romantic history and wild beauty—undiminished by the local lobster “factory” supplying the tables of Valparaiso and Santiago.

Chile herself performs a fair share of maritime service. About one hundred large and small steamers fly the Chilean flag, with about 35 sailing vessels chiefly engaged in fishing and the transport of coal and lumber, the total representing some 75,000 tons. Over 40 per cent of “maritime movement” of Chilean ports is recorded by Chilean vessels, and strong support of national traffic was afforded in early 1922 by the passageof a new law restricting coastwise trade to ships registered in Chile.

The largest and most important of Chilean steamship companies is the Compañia Sud Americana de Vapores, Government-supported, with headoffices in Valparaiso, operating a fine and excellently-equipped fleet of ten vessels serving Chilean and Peruvian ports, and, since the War, extending its international service through the Panama Canal to New York and European ports. Two new vessels of 7000 tons each were added in 1922 to the company’s fleet: theAconcaguaand her sister ship were built at Greenock, and bring the Sud Americana’s first-class passenger service to a high standard.

Chilean highways, placed though they are in scenery so lovely that the traveller’s eyes are directed to mountains and tall trees rather than to the morass at his feet, need the improvement projected by the Road Law of 1920, arranging for special taxes to be devoted to the construction and upkeep of first-class country roads.

Reasons for the long neglect of this means of transport include the fact that farmers and countryfolk in Chile commonly ride horseback—this is a land of good horsemen and well-trained animals—and the condition of the surface if not a matter of indifference is of less concern than if vehicles were more common. Next, country produce has been in the past, and in many regions is yet, brought from the farms by heavy ox-carts, pulled by teams for whose convenience, again, a smooth surface is not considered a necessity. The third reason, which perhaps should have foremost place, is the nature of a great part of the Chilean soil.

As soon as one enters the Central Valley of Chile, one recognises a characteristic of the Pacific Coast, the fertile and extremely fine soil, as light as face-powder, with its slightly pungent scent. Much of this soil is volcanic ash, with a mixture of vegetable detritus; it is extraordinarily fertile, with almost every virtue in the eyes of the farmer, and undoubtedly this genial soil produces the best food in the world. But it is difficult to reduce fine dust to the consistency of a road with a surface hard enough to resist the disintegrating effects of an eight-months’ drought, followed by tremendous and violent rains.

Between the double row of blackberry hedges, backed by lines of poplars, a typical road of Central Chile is a deep trough of shifting, floating dust in the dry season, and a swamp after the rains set in. Once upon a day in May the writer with a party of friends tried to reach Los Andes from Santiago in a motor-car: the Chilean chauffeur and the car both did their excellent best, but a mile or two outside the capital the highway became a sea of mud, and we finally gave it up when the car skidded upon the top of the Chacabuco Pass. During the fifty or sixty miles traversed before we reached a railway station, the only strip of really hard foundation for the wheels was encountered when we ran in the gravelly bed of a shallow stream.

This test, however, was not quite fair to Chilean roads; the season and the route were not chosen with discretion. For even in Central Chile there are well-made, wide roads, a few hundred miles in each province, over which motors may pass. The coming of the automobile renders the creation of better highways an urgent necessity, in fact, the motor lorry promising a means for getting farm produce to market that is badly needed in the developing districts.

Antofagasta, with its hard-surfaced nitrate fields, owns about six hundred miles of first-class roads; a record equalled only by the big Territory of Magellanes in the far south, where the sheep-farmers of the newly developed estates have made roads across Western Patagonia. In each of these two regions the climate, although in the North almost unbrokenly dry and in the South almost unbrokenly humid, is equable, lacking the sharp and destructive changes of the Central region. It must be owned, however, that the proportion of roads to area in great southern territory is one mile in length to each fifty square miles of land.

Altogether, Chile is officially stated to have between six and seven thousand miles of highway in first-class condition, with Coquimbo, Atacama, Aconcagua, Santiago and Tarapacá following the two provinces named above in length of highways in good condition. The new law aims at putting another six thousand miles of road into the same category within the next few years, out of the total of all classes reaching a mileage of nearly twenty thousand.

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