nitrate clesert on the north; and it tends also to draw trade from the coast, naturally tributary to it, and from transmontane Argentina. In the days of Aguirre and Valdivia, as in the time of the Incas just before, Copiapó was an outpost of the con- querors’ settlement in Chile. When the country farther south became settled, Copiapó continued to be a great frontier town; but this time it was a frontier facing north, toward the desert, rather than a frontier that looked south toward the richer land that was to become the heart of Chile at a later time. To change its outlook, or orientation, in this manner was also to change its life; and this happened again and again not only with respect to its frontier position but also with respect to the whole industrial change that overtook Chile in its national de- velopment. Copper, nitrate, the railway—each has meant a complete and revolutionary change in the fortunes of Copiapó.
The population of the town changed rapidly in numbers with every change of fortune. At one time the Copiapó district counted over twenty thousand souls and Copiapó was one of the busiest cities of South America. This was at the height of the silver and copper mining, nearly three-quarters of a century ago. It also enjoyed prosperity because of its trade with the transandean settlements, in what is now northwestern Argentina. A very famous trail runs eastward from Copiapó up to the headwaters of the Jorqucra River; thence it passes immediately south of the peaks of San Francisco and reaches the basin of Fiambalá, through which it runs southward to Tinogasta with branches to Catamarca, Santiago del Estero, San Juan, and other frontier towns of Argentina (consult Figure 1).
Lying on the trails and roads to the nitrate fields of the north and the center of a great mining region, Copiapó later devel- oped a cattle business with the Argentine. The herds gathered at San Juan, Catamarca, and Tucuman are driven for twenty- four or twenty-five days over the mountains and down into the valley of Copiapó. The cattle are brought in to the num- ber of 12,000 yearly and are driven across the mountains from September to May, most of them in May before the passes are closed with snow. They are mixed breeds, able to stand the trying weather and bad going of the mountain country. Upon
