tional changes in the lower valley. Caldera, once the port of Copiapó, had fallen into disrepute and had been replaced by a port at the mouth of the Copiapó valley. Now Caldera was resurrected, Puerto Viejo being abandoned in its turn. Cal- dera with 50 people in 1850 hac 2000 in 1853. With the pass- ing of the mining booms towards the end of the century Cal- dera again declined, and now, in spite of its fine natural harbor, a rare feature on the North Chilean coast, it is of little impor- tance with only 2000 inhabitants.
Another interesting response to the railroad was the drop in the value of land that followed its construction. Until the nitrate development in the north began to make its heavy demands on the products of the northern valleys, property in the Copiapó valley had realized its highest values in the decade before the opening of the railroad transformed the means and costs of transportation. Cuadra cites the case of a piece of land near Copiapó about an acre in extent from which the annual value of the forage averaged $800. Gilliss also instances a price of $4000 paid for the alfalfa cut from less than four acres, though this was in a dry year (1850).
The opening of the Copiapó railroad was an important event for the Dulcinea Mine of the Copiapó Mining Company. It released mules from the Copiapó-Caldera transit for service between the mine and the town. This was the more difficult stretch, however, for the roads were much worse, a fact re- flected in the carriage rates between the two sections which in the early days were in the ratio of 11 to16. Greater advantages accrued from the continuance of the line in 1871 to Puqutios, only a few miles from the mine. The more northerly group of Las Animas gained likewise from the opening (1870) of the line from the Bay of Chafaral and the branches subsequently built.[1]
The famous Dulcinea Mine is at an elevation of 6600 feet and has a maximum depth of 3600 feet. Since the recent installation of a smelter at the mine, orcs have been worked down to 7 per cent assay or less where previously 10 to 15
- ↑ J. G. Matta: Bosquejo del estado actual de la industria minera del cobre en el cetranjero i en Chile, Soc. Nacl. de Mineria, Santiago, 1915.
