108 AVES ISLAND. 



Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ) 



County of Suffolk. \ **' 



Then the above William P. G-ibbs, personally appeared and acknowl- 

 ■edged the foregoing instrument, by him subscribed, to be his free act 

 and deed. Before me — 



CHAS. HOMER, 



Justice of the Peace. 

 Boston, August 23, 1855. 



Extracts from pamphlet, marked N, filed as proof, with Mr. Sa? ford's 

 letter of March 8, 1856. 



We allude to the recent discovery of large amounts of guano, 

 amounting to millions of tons, on the islands of the Caribbean sea 

 under the dominion of the Eepublic of Venezuela. These islands are 

 but 1,900 miles from our chief Atlantic ports, and their valuable fer- 

 tilizing deposits can thus be made available at but a comparatively 

 very trifling cost for freight. In 1855, the Pennsylvania Legislature 

 granted a charter to the Philadelphia Guano Company for the purpose 

 of at once commencing an extensive trade in the article in question. 

 By a contract entered into with the government of Venezuela, it pos- 

 sesses the exclusive right, for a series of years, of exporting the guano 

 existing upon all the islands belonging to that republic. The company 

 is now fully organized, and prepared to furnish any quantity desired. 



It is thus noticed in an arti61e upon fertilizers, published in the agri- 

 cultural report of the United States Patent Office for 1854, page 95 : 



" Cohtmhian or Bird Island Guano. — A guano has recently been 

 imported from Bird Island, (which is embraced in the contract of the 

 Philadelphia company,) situate some 400 miles off the coast of Vene- 

 zuela, 200 miles south of St. Thomas, and 150 miles westward of Guad- 

 aloupe. From careful analysis, it has been ascertained that' this sub- 

 stance is by far the richest source of phosphoric acid for the farmer yet 

 discovered, as it contains eighty-four per cent, of dry super-phosphate 

 of lime, or about one third more than pure ground bones. It also 

 contains less than one fourth the quantity of water always present in 

 the Peruvian article, and from twenty to thirty per cent, less than any 

 other guano known. One hundred parts of the Bird Island article 

 contains the phosphoric acid necessary to form ninety-five and two fifth 

 parts of bone phosphate of lime. Of dry organic matter and ammonia, 

 it contains six and one fifth per cent." 



It will no doubt be gratifying to our agricultural friends to learn 

 that these valuable guano islands have been leased from the Venezue- 

 lan government, for a long term of years, by a number of enterprising 

 capitalists of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, who have pro- 



