356 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
spend a greater proportion of their time upon the fishing places, increase the 
territory conveniently accessible for the markets of Callao and Lima, and 
open new fishing grounds. Finally, the opportunities are excellent for the 
proper preservation of several kinds of fish by various methods. 
IJ. THE GUANO INDUSTRY. 
The guano problem, which is perhaps the most important economic ques- 
tion confronting the nation of Peru to-day, has been included in the fishery 
studies partly because it is impossible entirely to dissociate the guano industry 
and the fisheries in protective and regulative measures. Strictly, indeed, we 
may consider guano a fishery product, for it is formed by the birds from the 
small fishes, which swim in such enormous schools along this coast. Chiefly 
for this reason, in fact, I have on a previous page referred to the anchobeta 
as the most important resource of the waters of Peru. It is, however, an inade- 
quate statement of the relation of the guano and fishery industries to say that 
the existence of the guano-producing birds in Peru is dependent upon the presence 
of large schools of fish. One of the most important products of the fishery 
industry of the United States is the fish guano made by direct manufacture 
from the menhaden. In Peru a nearly equal value of guano is produced annually 
from the anchobetas through the agency of the birds. This guano is obtained 
far more cheaply than if the process of manufacture were depended upon, 
since it can be brought from the islands at little more than the cost of trans- 
portation. (Fig. 8, pl. xv.) It is a very significant practical question to what 
extent Peru should continue to depend upon the birds for the production of 
nitrogenous guano, or whether the direct manufacture of fertilizer from the 
fishes should be undertaken in order to supplement the present available sup- 
ply. This question will not be specifically discussed at this time, but the matter 
here presented has a very direct relation to its solution. 
Peru owes the importance of its guano deposits, not only to the abundance 
of the sea birds and the fishes upon which they feed, but in equal part to those 
natural conditions which have permitted the conservation of the nitrogenous 
parts of the guano. Had the coast been subject to rains, or were the climate 
more moist, the nitrogenous portion of the guano would have been converted 
into ammonia and lost by evaporation or drainage. There would have resulted 
then, at the best, a phosphatic guano of relatively low value. The guano 
consists, as is well known, of the excrement of birds and sea lions, with the other 
offal matter of the rookeries, consisting of bodies of birds and sea lions, birds’ 
eggs, and fish. For our purposes the sea lions may be excluded from consider- 
ation. Undoubtedly they have lent considerable bulk to certain deposits of 
guano, but, from such information as can be gained, it seems practically sure 
7 
