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 quin 
tals, 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