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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 273, 14 March 1889, Page 2

Along the Peruvian coast, ctretching for hundreds of miles, are the famous beds of nitrate of soda, which purified is saltpetre. The deposits, more profitable than silver or guano, were discovered accidently by a vagrant Englishman named George Smith, lu" were not operated to any extent until recent years. Now, nitrate, having been found a valuable component of a hundred chemical forms, is in demand the world over, and thousands ot pounds' worth is shipped from the ports along the coast annually. Before its value was fully known a number of farsighted men located " claims ” after the fashion in vogue in mining camps everywhere, and then the Government stepped in and forbade any further pre-emption. But the original locations cover enough of the deposit to supply the market a century or two, and to keep up the prices they have formed a pool, a monopoly combined, under which they charge from 8s to 12s per hundredweight tor what oasts them about 7|d, There is apparently no limit to the stuff, the bed stretching up shd down the coast for 800 or 400 ntilee* '