Atacama,

Atacama, the name, formerly, of two provinces, (1) Chilian and (2) Bolivian; most of the latter has, since the late war, been transferred to Chili.—(1) A northern province of Chili, with an area of 39,400 sq. m., and a pop. (1892) of 69,642. About 1000 silver and 250 copper mines are worked, and gold is also found in considerable quantities. Salt deposits cover sometimes 50 sq. m. Copper, to the value of over £1,500,000 annually, is the chief export to England. Capital, Copiapo; population, 9916.—(2) The Bolivian department extended as far north as Peru, and east to Argentine Republic and the department of Potosi. In 1861 its area was put down as 70,181 sq. m., and its pop. as 5273. No trustworthy figures are published regarding the small portion, no longer a province, still retained by Bolivia; all that part of the district west of the Andes was ceded in 1834 to the Chilians, and formed into the department of Antofagasta, with an area of 60,770 sq. m., and a population stated (1892) at 36,220. The recently discovered mines of Caracoles are said to be the most productive silver-mines in the world. The former capital, Cobija (pop. 2380), was long the only port in the district; but the rival port of Antofagasta, founded in 1870, had by 1894 attained a population of 7946.—The Desert of Atacama extends through both provinces, but, since the war of 1879, has belonged entirely to Chili. From the steep, almost inaccessible coast, the land rises in rocky plateaus, broken at intervals by precipitous mountain-chains. Generally speaking, the soil is not at all sandy, but rocky; and the scanty rainfall of the district affords an additional reason for the growth of only the hardiest of desert plants, and for the frequency and extent of its dry salt-marshes. In the war it was treated as important, owing to its silver and salt-petre works, which have to some extent peopled its once desert solitudes.