Jan. 23, I860.] BUIST ON THE CURIA MURIA ISLANDS. 57 



Wagtom's adventure led to the belief that guano must abound, 

 and the ship was accordingly loaded with a brownish-looking 

 powder, supposed to be dried excrement. 



Salt Rocks, like Socotra, consist of granite, and it is possible the 

 powder was of a kind similar to that brought as guano by the native 

 boat, in 1856, from the Curia Murias. 



H. M. S. Juno, Captain Freeman tie, was, in February, 1854, 

 despatched from England to investigate the matter, and the follow- 

 ing July the islands were ceded to the British Government by the 

 Imaum of Muscat. In 1856, Mr. Ord " fitted out an expedition and 

 proceeded to the Curia Murias." They were met by a horde of 

 armed Arabs, who denied the Imaum's right to cede the islands 

 and threatened to shoot the invaders if they did not instantly 

 retire. Mr. Ord once more applied to Grovernment, and H. M.'s 

 Steamer Cordelia was despatched, on the 6th June, 1857, to protect 

 the guano seekers against the Arabs ; on arriving, on the 14th of 

 September, at the Curia Murias, the Cordelia found no opposing 

 Arabs. The Cordelia visited Bombay in November in quest of 

 provisions, returning again to the Curia Murias. 



The Chaieman expressed his obligation to Dr. Buist for having dispelled 

 their ignorance with respect to the supposed occurrence of large masses of 

 guano in the tract under consideration. But still even there phosphatic sub- 

 stances might be found which would prove to be of some value to our agri- 

 culturists. For instance, there had been recently discovered in the Anguilla 

 islets, in the West Indies, deposits of this nature. An American vessel 

 got becalmed oif a rock called Sombrero, north of St. Kitt's and the Anguilla 

 isles, and there the captain found a deposit oi fossil bones and guano. 

 Specimens having been carried to New York, were analysed and found to be 

 worth from 41. to 6Z. 10s. per ton, and since then this little rock had been 

 stripped of its deposit to the value of 200,000?. sterling. Sir Hercules Eobinson, 

 the late governor of St, Kitt's, having heard of this adventure, had sent home 

 specimens of a similar deposit on our own Anguilla islands, which had 

 been submitted to Sir Roderick's examination, and he had no hesitation in 

 saying that the substance might prove to be of value to the agriculturist. 

 He had recommended to Her Majesty's Government that a geologist should be 

 sent to these islets, to discover whether some of them may not be as valuable 

 as the rock of Sombrero. 



Mr. J. Crawfurd, f.r.g.s., observed that it was utterly impossible that 

 good guano could exist on the Curia Muria islands, lying within the south-west 

 monsoon, and where, consequently, there were torrents of rain. Guano 

 existed only in certain latitudes on the western coast of America, where no 

 rain ever fell, and there necessarily only on uninhabited islands. The Chairman 

 had said that the island of St. Kitt's might give us a substance equal in value 

 to guano ; the price showed clearly enough that that was not the case. 



The Chairman. — 6Z. 10s. 



Mr. Crawfurd. — 3?. 10s. was the average price ; but even Q>1. 10s. would 

 not be half the value of good Peruvian guano, which in this country was 15Z. 



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