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Show beds and where a colony of Northern ' Nitrate Kings' have accumulated, their millions. A high, chilly upland, about twenty miles across, separates' the outer Sierra of Huataeoude from, the higher range of the Cordillera;, and then the Andes slope sharply down, to the plateau of Bolivia, 12,000 feet above the sea. The surface of the desert is not sharp sand, but dry earth mixed with a certain proportion of sandy particles, and irrigation would turn every rod of it into a fertile plain. Wherever wells have been sunk, alternate layers of gravel, sand and mud are disclosed, each series of layers representing the. sequence of a single flood in former ages; hence it follows that in times long past the pampa must have been subject to periodical inundations. Water may bo found almost anywhere, at the depth of from 50 to 150 feet; but no place has yet been discovered where the conditions necessary foj artesian wells are fulfilled. IN QUEEREST IQUIQUE. THE SCENE OF A SAVAGE AND BLOODY BATTLE. Ten I'olnts from the Most Interesting Region or I'll lie "Nitrate Kings" and the Houudless Source of Their Wealth. When we first saw Iquique, (pronounced (pro-nounced E-kee-kee), little more than half a year ago, it was one of the most peaceful and prosperous cities of Chile a teaport second only to Valparaiso in population and commercial importance, import-ance, in wide contrast to the burned and battered ruin the rebels made of it on their recent raid, says Fannie 1i. Ward in the Philadelphia Record. As most of ray readers are aware, it has long been the great shipping point of nitrate of soda a vast business, practically prac-tically controlled by English capital; and therefore in the eyes of Englishmen English-men Iquique is of more consequence than all the rest of Chile put together. In the battle here between the government gov-ernment troops and the rebels on the 19th and 20th ult every building in the six principal squares whs completely destroyed. Tho insurgents seized the custom house, pillaged private residences, resi-dences, and finally set fire to the business busi-ness quarter and reduced it to ashes. The terrified women and children, who were hidden in the inner rooms of their Ihouses to escapo bombs and flying billets, bill-ets, had the walls burned or pulled down over their heads during the sacking sack-ing process, and in this way several hundred defenseless creatures perished like rats in a holo. Low-class Chileans are proverbially cruel, and the soldiers, having once had a taste of blood, are worse than so many savages. This was many times proved in the war with Peru. After ono or two disastrous battles the Peruvians, Peru-vians, knowing what to expect if they fell into tho hands of the merciless enemy, en-emy, when defeat was certain, leaped into the sea or killed themselves with their own bayonets. The terra "cut-throat" applies well to the Chilean soldier, for every one of them carries a short, curved knife sharpened on tho inner side of the curve that just fits a human neck, and is terribly expert in its use. Not long ago we were entertained in the house of a wealthy citizen of Santiago, when he showed me with great pride and satisfaction a glass case containing upward of 200 gold and silver medals, such as these Southern governments delight to bestow upon their soldiers for distinguished bravery, and related how they were all torn from the breasts of dead or wounded officers on the battle-fields of Peru. For more than a year past the nitrato people have been doing little profitable business, principally on account of the government troubles and consequent ptrikea funonfr the laborers, la-borers, and also because the English market is overstocked with the commodity, com-modity, and therefore its price is correspondingly cor-respondingly low. From this nitrate industry alone the Chilean government has been collecting a revenue of about $20,000,000 per annum in export ; duties. Some eight months ago, when workmen were striking all over the country, on account of hard tirnos, occasioned by the persistent refusal of congress to pass the appropriation bills, these Iquiqui laborers made a great deal of trouble. I The workmen had been receiving from $4 to $10 a day in Chilean paper currency, (worth about one-third the amount in United States or English gold), and when exchange dropped lower and lower they demanded to be paid in silver instead of in paper, as formerly, which would, in reality, about double their wages. This the nitrate companies refused to do, because be-cause they were making no money themselves, and the established rate of payment was exceptionally good for Chile. Then the laborers "struck" en masso, and threatened to burn down the works and warehouses unless their demands were acceded to. The managers man-agers importuned the president to send troops to their assistance. But the government was so distracted with its own troubles and the revolts that were springing up all over the country that aid was not dispatched to Iquiqui in time to do much good. Tho consequence conse-quence was that several of the largest nitrate companies were compelled to suspend work entirely, to their own ruin and the suffering of hundreds of poor families and the loss to Chile's treasury at a critical time when she can ill afford it Perhaps the greatest natural curios- lty on tne soutnern Continent is this inexhaustible deposit of nitrate of soda. Beds of it are strewn along the western west-ern coast for five hundred miles; and throughout all that distance the physical aspect of the country is the same everywhere an arid range of hills from four to six thousand feet high, rising abruptly out of the Pacific, backed by a desert pampa (plain) from fifty to one hundred miles wide, which gradually ascends to the foot of the snowy Cordillera. Nowhere No-where else in the world except in this particular pampa are nitrates found in quantities worth mentioning. A few years ago water sold on the Atacama desert for $20 the arroba, or about $2.50 per gallon, and a drink for a mule cost 15 English shillings. Finally, at a plaeo in the desert called Carmen Alto, a sun condenser with 50,000 square feet of glas9 was employed em-ployed to distill fresh water from that of "the sea. This was afterward wrecked by a whirlwind, but a smaller apparatus on tho same principle is now being worked at Sierra Gordo, and realizes a handsome profit, though the water sells for only 30 cents the arroba. The portion of the pampa in which Kaglish-spcakiug people are most interested in-terested is that lying between Iquiqui and Pisagua the celebrated "Tamarn-g;vi "Tamarn-g;vi Pampa" where lie tho Tarapaca |