358 Voyage of the Novara. 



the smallest contingent to the sick list, and even the strong, 

 penetrating, and exceedingly disagreeable stench of the sub- 

 stance, impregnated as it is with ammonia, seems to have 

 not the slightest prejudicial effect upon the lungs, pulmonary 

 complaints hardly ever making their appearance among the 

 workmen. So far from this being the case, it is even con- 

 tended that persons suffering under affections of the lungs 

 derive benefit in the first stage of the malady from a resi- 

 dence in the Huanu Islands, and find themselves in improved 

 health on their return to the mainland. 



The centre island has been only partially excavated, but 

 the works there have been discontinued. At present it is 

 entirely uninhabited, though there are still visible on its sum- 

 mit a few wooden huts, which formerly sheltered the work- 

 men, as also some of the " shoots " or slides used for facilitat-' 

 ing the collection and shipment of the guano. 



The southernmost of the tln-ee islands is quite in its primi- 

 tive state, never having been touched. No sign indicative of 

 man's presence on it is anywhere visible. 



The earliest attempts to export guano to Europe as a ma- 

 nure were made in 1832, but they proved so losing a specu- 

 lation, that not till eight years later did the Peruvian mer- 

 cantile house of Messrs. Quiros again direct attention to the 

 importance of guano as an article of export, when the Govern- 

 ment of Peru granted them, for a fixed sum, the exclusive 

 privilege of exporting guano for six years. This gave an 

 opportunity for instituting, on a sufficient scale, those experi- 



