CHILE, chill, or CHILI, chili (the republic of), situated on the western coast of South America, between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, is bounded on the east by Argentina and Bolivia and on the north by Peru. In length it surpasses even Argentina (q.v.), for it extends from lat. 55° 59' S. to 17° 57' S. in a curving line, the total length of which is nearly 2,700 miles, but its greatest width is only 248 miles, and in the narrowest part the measurement from west to east is less than 70 miles. The total area is 292,419 square miles. Besides the Andean Cordillera on the east, there is a parallel western coast ridge or cor dillera with moderate elevations, and in the val ley between the two, from Santiago, the capital, to the south, are found the best agricultural districts and many towns. Compared with the other South American countries, Chile ranks as the seventh in size. The northern part of Chile is a hot desert; the southern a cold region of almost incessant rains; but between these ex tremes lies a great extent of territory blessed with a temperate and healthful climate. Divid ing the republic, for convenience of characteriza tion, into five zones, in the northernmost zone, despite its nearly absolute lack of vegetation, are the chief resources of the national wealth— the deposits of nitrate of soda, mines, etc. The second zone, continuing toward the south, is less torrid. Rain falls several times in the year; and though mining is the chief industry, small areas are also devoted to agriculture. The third zone, in the centre of the country, has a tem perate climate and fairly abundant rains. Cat tle-raising, mining and the cultivation of cereals, vines and fruits are the leading industries. In the fourth zone, where rains are more abun dant and the climate cooler, the chiefproducts are wheat, cattle and lumber. The fifth and most southerly zone, extending to Cape Horn, is cold and rainy. From 43 30' southward, about 1,150 miles is a district of islands and uplands, rich in forests, fisheries and lands suitable for stock-raising.
Physiography.— The country is a valley enclosed between two lines of mountains. On the east is the Cordillera of the Andes, dimin ishing in height to the south, where its line is crossed by various rivers and lakes. On the west a parallel, lower range, the coast Cordil lera, is interrupted from about S. lat. by many arms of the sea. It contains the line of islands that fringe the mainland. Chilean geographical contrasts and extremes are here illustrated. The Longitudinal Valley, admir ably fertile between 30° and 42° S. lat., is pro longed in the arid desert of the north, but in the south is submerged beneath the ocean, becom ing a drowned valley. The Cordillera of the
coast is, geologically, older than that of the Andes. It is lower and less continuous, but so far resembles it that it presents, generally speaking, an abrupt slope to the west, while sinking much more gradually to the east. In Tarapaci it rises, almost from the sea, to heights varying from 1,000 to 7,000 feet. In Atacama it averages 3,000 feet, culminating in Pefiarave (7,300 feet). Farther south it re cedes from the sea and sinks in height till it disappears below Tres Puntas. It rises again to some 7,000 feet in the central provinces, notably in Roble and Campana, near Valparaiso. South of the river Ropel the range becomes lower and more complicated. Further south it splits into two parallel low spurs. South of the Bio-bio it is known as the Cordillera of Nahu elfuta. Still further toward the south it shares with the valley, its companion throughout, that plunge already mentioned; but its peaks and high plains form the line of islands clinging to the curved shore-line, though only at one point, the peninsula of Taitao or Taytao, is it visibly united to the continent.
Rivers that rise on the western side of the coast Cordillera form the smaller hydrographic system of the country; and the larger hydro graphic system, the available source of un limited power for industrial uses, includes rivers which have their source in the Andes and flow to the Pacific Ocean. North of lat. 28° S. all the rivers, except the Azufre of Tacna and the Loa, carry their waters to the sea only during a portion of the year. In the region just below this, to lat. S.,— and particularly in the paraiso-Santiago section — ate rivers swollen by the melting snow on the mountains in No vember, December, January and February and by rains that fall on their watersheds at an other period. The more important of these annual floods is the former, which brings down into the agricultural valleys alluvial silt to re new their fertility. But below lat. 35° S. the rivers are subject to floods, especially in June and July, rather then than in the season from November to February, because the melting of snow on the mountains affects the total volume of water much less in these latitudes. Navi gable rivers are comparatively few, and in any event they would be called upon to play a less important role here than that assigned to the great inland waterways of Argentina and Brazil, since the ocean itself facilitates communication with, or between, the different parts of this nar row country. The Andean rivers of the coun try rise at great altitudes and accomplish their descent to the coast by a series of cascades and great waterfalls, not at a single point or two, but in many widely separated regions.