. Popular science monthly. ccurrences, with rain again in 1912, and, morewonderful still, snow where people living in the region for a generationnever had seen snow, have led many residents to believe that the cli-mate is changing since Halleys comet went past. That water hasflowed here at times in the past is shown by the dry gullies and chan-nels. Numerous snow-fed rivers descend the western slopes of theAndes, but their waters soon are evaporated or lost in the dry sands ofthe pampa. For hundreds of miles along this coast not a perennialstream enters the ocean. If absolute desert exists in
. Popular science monthly. ccurrences, with rain again in 1912, and, morewonderful still, snow where people living in the region for a generationnever had seen snow, have led many residents to believe that the cli-mate is changing since Halleys comet went past. That water hasflowed here at times in the past is shown by the dry gullies and chan-nels. Numerous snow-fed rivers descend the western slopes of theAndes, but their waters soon are evaporated or lost in the dry sands ofthe pampa. For hundreds of miles along this coast not a perennialstream enters the ocean. If absolute desert exists in the world, it lies inthe nitrate pampa. In crossing this region one can not help feeling the utter helplessnessof man in the face of such great expanses of waterless and lifelesswastes. All directions lead to sand, more sand, even to the border of theocean itself. One fails at first to understand how men are willing to livethere year after year; why those who go away generally come back again THE NITRATE FIELDS OF CHILE 21. A Rio seco, or Dry River, in a salar. to this apparently limitless desolation. But almost the first days stayreveals part of the reason. The day is not unpleasant despite the heatand the intensity of the sunlight, for the extreme dryness makes tem-peratures of 90° or more quite comfortable, and the colors—the grays,yellows, violet—playing over the sands, help make up for the lack ofliving green. The nights are wonderful—cool, crisp, refreshing, withthe brilliancy of sky that only deserts can have; while the moonlightgleaming from millions of salt crystals lights up the land with an effectof half day and renders into attractive forms the most prosaic dryness also was a factor in the formation of the nitratebeds. It seems certain from the kinds of rocks found there that the areabetween the Coast Eanges and the Andes once was occupied by a bay orlong arm of the sea. Then the land began to rise, cutting off the bayand converting it into
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