72  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

There  are  about  $150,000,000  invested  in  the
nitrate  industry  alone—$55,000,000  being
English  and  $51,000,000  local.  American
capital  is  little  represented  in  this  line.  The
exports  in  1913  amounted  to  60,500,000  quintals, ­
  a  quintal  being  101.41  pounds;  the  value
in  money  was  $98,239,569.  Iodine  is  one  of
the  by-products  in  the  manufacture  of  nitrate,
and  is  controlled  by  a  combination  or  trust,
$1,876,277  worth  being  exported  last  year,  the
United  States  taking  183  tons,  England  65
tons  and  the  remainder  of  Europe  264  tons.
The  nitrate  beds  run  a  distance  of  450  miles
south  of  the  Camarones  River,  at  an  altitude
of  4000  to  5000  feet  and  from  10  to  20  miles
inland.  Many  theories  have  been  advanced
as  to  these  deposits,  the  one  generally  accepted
being  that  these  fields  were  once  the  bottom  of
some  sea  elevated  by  a  titanic  upheaval.  The
beds  vary  in  width  from  a  half  to  five  miles,
and  the  “caliche”  or  strata  of  earth  bearing
the  nitrate  is  usually  covered  by  sand  and  dirt
varying  from  a  few  inches  to  10  feet.  This
is  blown  out  by  dynamite,  separated  by  wash ­