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 sonic points to 3:300 feet. hut usually inuth lower. It is composed of granite and mica-schists, skirted in sonic regions by Ter tiary deposits which, in places, extend far in land. tildcr sedimentary rocks do not occur in the coast regions excepting a narrow strip of chalk skirting the shore. 6 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. Ilerc and there are terrace escarpments. and mountains rise in some places above the plateau: but there is no continuous range. and numerous volcanoes, one of whieh, the lullailaco, is higher than Chimborazo by about 100 feet. are completely isolated from one an other. 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:3:3°S., is marked by a number of transverse spurs run ning front the cordilleras which form the east ern boundary to the ocean :cod separating the river valleys from one another. These spurs, in traveling north or south. are crossed by passes which are often very sleep.
In the third section the mountainous coast lands are separated from the cordilleras by a lon gitudinal valley which extends without interrup tion from the transverse ridge of Chacabnco, north of Santiago. to Puerto ..Montt, sloping from an elevation of 23011 feet in the north to sea level at Puerto Alontt ; continuing under the sea, it cuts oil the island of Chiloi; from the mainland. This central valley, about GOO miles in length, was originally a huge cleft that was gradually tilled 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 trtcv crsed 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 fourth section, south of Puerto :\lontt, 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 cast between some of the highest elevations of the cordilleras and the water-parting between 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 cordilleras. \\ hen it was ascertained that the water-parting did not coincide with the line of greatest elevation, hut was in large part east of it, the Chileans claimed all the country west of the water-parting, while Argentina insisted that the line of greatest eleva tion formed the frontier. The dispute. referred to the British l'hivernment, was in process of arbitration in 1902. The chain of the !ides is composed not only of volcanie products, 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 ...\ndes straight to the sea through openings in the Coast Cordil lera. Their principal tributaries. however, flow from south to. north in spite of the slope south ward of the central valley. a fact first observed by Dr. Peter The river Alatile, which 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 sonic distance by small steamboats. :\lany rivers rise east of the Cordilleras and for a space run north 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 valley is the existence of several large lakes at the western foot of the Andes, Alost 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 lth•bo•s are found: but (41111111(1%p here is small and the harbor- are little utilized. Val paraiso, the principal port of the west coast of South Ameriea, stands on a bay exposed to heavy seas, and vessels are wrecked in the harbor every year. The ports to the north are merely road steads. the most important being seven little towns from Arlen to Tanal. known as the Nitrate Ports, because nitrate of soda. the leading of the country. is shipped from them. The best shipping facilities south of Valparaiso are at Constitucion. Tome. Arauco, and Lelia (coal shipments), Valdivia, and Puerto Montt. Punta Arenas, on the strait of :Magellan, is a coaling station for all vessels passing through the Strait,