English capital has developed this great industry in Chile, and no less than one hundred million dollars in British sovereigns have been invested in these dreary wastes. Almost one hundred million dollars’ worth of this _salitre_ has been exported in a single year. The ports are at all times filled with vessels which have brought coal and merchandise, and are awaiting a load of nitrate. It is seldom that the Stars and Stripes are seen floating from a masthead, but it is a welcome sight to an American. The profits for a few years were so great that an overdevelopment followed, and the price greatly dropped. Then a trust agreement was, arrived at limiting the output, but even that was not a success and the production is again unlimited. The population of the nitrate district is a cosmopolitan one, and represents almost every nation on the face of the earth. It gives employment to many thousands of persons. A homesick and stranded American is not an uncommon sight. It is estimated that at the present rate of mining the known fields of nitrate of soda in Chile will be exhausted in fifty years, or less. The official board of engineers has recently reported to the Chilean government that there are in sight four and a half million quintals (220.4 lbs.) of nitrate in the deposits of the country. A previous estimate had fixed the visible quantity at less than half that amount. It is doubtful whether either of those estimates is very reliable. At any rate the government and owners of the _oficinas_ are pushing the sales in every way, and exploiting the use and value of nitrate as though it was inexhaustible. It is possible that similar deposits may be found on the Sahara Desert, or some of our own desert lands where similar climatic and atmospheric conditions exist. The value of nitrate lands in Chile has risen rapidly in recent years, and nearly all the undeveloped fields are now owned by the Chilean government, which auctions them off as the need for money arises.