We can then also realize the stability of the natural life of the several communities of Chile. We speak now of the economic and social and political life that is domestic and not of that which has to do with the national government or with inter- national affairs or with matters of general policy.
The Copiapé-Vallenar region lies on the border between two distinctly different regions, the one being central Chile, where most of the people of Chile are found, the other the nitrate des- ert of the north. Set between these is the borderland region, where the rains are greater than in the nitrate desert but still sO uncertain as to give a truly desert stamp to settlements, trails, communications, products and impose a marked degree of isolation. From Copiapé northward every government offi- cial gets a certain percentage of his salary extra as a “‘ gratifica- tion,”’ or bonus, because living is more expensive than in the south. Copiapé thus acquires the special character of a fron- tier settlement that is at the same time a desert settlement.[1]
Nature and Organization of Desert Dettlements
Each populated desert valley is a geographical experiment. In every one I know there are distinctive features of govern- ment and social organization, yet they are all alike in that the attention of the entire community is centered upon a single feature —the river, which is vital to its life and happiness. Even when a railroad at last links up such a valley with the rest of the world, it is a connection not marked by the innova- tion of express trains and skyscrapers. Riding from Vallenar to Copiapé one takes a train consisting of four cars and an engine, One of the cars is for mail and express, the second car- ries wood, a third water for the engine and for the dry stations along the line, and it is only a fourth car that carries passengers.
There is a further reason why the life of a desert valley is so intensely focused upon the river that sustains the group.
- ↑ It is the same in the wet and cold far south of Chile in the Magellan region, and similar conditions exist in other countries where extreme climatic conditions are found on distant frontiers of civilization. The scale for the additional salaries paid by the State to officials in Swedish Norrland is determined according to the diminishing degree of light during the dark period of the year. (H.W. Ahimann: The Economical Geography of Swedish Norrland, Geografiska Annaler, Vol, 3, 1921, pp. 97-164.)
