When railroad connections between the towns of northwest- ern Argentina and the Plata country had been established, the mountain trails declined in importance. Trade from one side of the Andes to the other became feeble and irregular and was limited to specialized products, such as wool, imported manufactured articles, live stock driven over the trail to its destination, and the like. This process, together with the drawing off of labor to more distant mining communities and to the nitrate fields, has caused the population of Copiapó to fluctuate from decade to decade by substantial amounts. In 1865 Copiopó had more than 13,000 people; in 1875 it had less than 12,000; in 1885 less than 10,000; and in 1895 but 9300. It rose to nearly 11,000 in 1913 but declined again to 9834 according to the census of 1920, The estimated population on January 2, 1922, was 9797.
Physical Basis of Life in Copianó
Not merely Copiapó but all the other towns of Chile present a singularly interesting aspect of city geography. Outside a few large cities, such as Lima and La Paz, I have been greatly struck everywhere through the Central Andes, the Desert of Atacama, and northwestern Argentina, with the extremely close dependence of towns upon the environing country, the trade routes, the trails, the sources of water supply, and the rural hamlets. It is a connection far more intimate and sub- stantial than anything we see in our country today, and [ can- not but think that it has had a large effect upon the stability of life in the various countries of Hispanic America. Though rev- olutions often take their rise in distant places far from the central seat of authority, it is the large city that has been the breeding place of most revolutionary plans. Certainly it is the place where the revolutionary power has to be put into effect and where laws good and bad originate to influence the politi- cal life, the government, the foreign relations, and perhaps the foreign trade of the country. But a revolution in Hispanic America is not at all the thing we have in mind in speaking of the French Revolution of more than a century ago, or the Russian Revolution of our time. In South America it affects
