The Andes Mountains separate Argentina from a very long and narrow country on the Pacific shore named Chile.

Argentina is called the Silver Land. Chile is so long and thin it is sometimes called the Sliver land. Chile doesn’t mean chilly; it means Land of Snow, for most of Chile is mountains, and the mountains are so high there is snow on their tops all the time. Chile and Argentina were once going to war in spite of the wall of mountains between them, but they made an agreement, as Canada and the United States did, that they would not fight. They set up on top of the Andes Mountains a huge bronze figure of Christ holding a cross—they melted their cannons to make it—and on the base they put words which say something like this: “Sooner shall these mountain crags crumble to dust than Chile and Argentina shall go to war with each other—they have sworn it at the foot of Christ.” They have had no fights since. What a pity such an easy way to stop fighting cannot be used everywhere!

Chile is so long and so thin and has so many mountains it hardly seems a country worth fighting for, but in spite of what seems to be, Chile makes a lot of money. This may seem still more surprising when I tell you that the northern part of Chile is a desert where it often does not rain for ten years at a time. That doesn’t sound like very good land, but it is one of the richest lands in the World. You would never guess why. Of course, nothing will grow there because it is a desert, and there are no diamonds nor gold. It is on account of something you probably never heard of. This something you never heard of is called Nitrate of Soda. It is a kind of salt that was once in the sea. The reason it is so valuable is because farmers all over the World buy it to put on their fields, as it makes vegetables grow so much better. Strange it doesn’t grow anything where it is found; but that is because there is no rain there and nothing will grow without rain. But it is lucky there is no rain, for if there were rain the Nitrate of Soda would melt. This part of Chile is like a long narrow trough. It was once under the sea, then there was an earthquake, and this part of the bottom of the sea rose up and made land; the water in the trough evaporated and left this rough kind of sea salt called Nitrate of Soda. Iodine comes from there too; and who doesn’t know that stinging brown stuff that your mother puts on cuts?