AVES ISLAND. 183 



United States of America at London, in answer to a request , 

 by Mr. Dallas at their instance, inclosing an extract from 

 an official letter or report of Commander DeHorsey, of the 

 British navy, who visited said isle in J-uly, 1854, which 

 report is dated August 1, 1854, and wherein Commander 

 DeHorsey, after stating his visit and information given to 

 him as to the price of the guano in the United States, being 

 |35 per ton, says: '^ At a rough estimate I should say there 

 were about 200,000 tons of guano on the island, which, at 

 £7 per ton, would make the island worth one and a half 

 million sterling. " In corroboration of this estimate, claim- 

 ants state that they have been informed that a larger one 

 was published, soon after they occupied the island, in the 

 summer of 1854, in a French West India paper, called. 

 "L'Outre Mer,'' which stated the quantity at 250,000 

 tons. They annex a copy of a notice of said publication 

 in an American newspaper, given to them by Mr. F. Colby ; 

 and also an extract from a publication in the New York 

 Tribune, written by Mr. Colby in July, 1855, noticing 

 Commander DeHorsey' s report; and also a notice in the 

 ''American Agriculturist," of November 8, 1854, of said 

 report, which are part of the publications referred to in 

 Captain Gibbs' deposition. 



2. The printed deposition of Captain Nathan P. Gibbs, 

 dated April 12, 1855, transmitted by claimants to the Uni- 

 ted States State Department, April 14, 1856. (See Ex. 

 Doc. No. 25, 3 Sess. 34th Cong., pp. 61 to 15.) 



He states, in answer to eighth interrogatory, (p. 67,) that 

 from his first examination of the isle and guano, when he 

 landed on it in April, 1854, his estimate of the guano was 

 ''over 150,000 tons," of which 75,000 tons was "first 

 rate," and the rest " good merchantable guano;" and that 

 this estimate of 150,000 tons did not include a large quan- 

 tity of inferior guano that would, however, then (in 1854) 

 "bear freight to the United States." In same answer he 

 states that from the knowledge he subsequently acquired, 

 by being nearly six months on the island getting guano, 

 he does not regard Commander DeHorsey's estimate as 

 "extravagant" or "erroneous." In his answer to the 

 eleventh interrogatory, he quotes the item stated for the 

 guano, in the claim filed in January, 1855, "minimum 

 25,000 tons, probably 50,000 tons," at $12 50 per ton, 

 $312,500, and says it "is much below the amount" these 

 claimants "might justly claim." He states the aggregate 

 quantity shipped from the isle, Avhilst occupied by claim- 

 ants, was, by claimants, about 7,200 tons, and by Lang & 

 Delano^ 2,000 tons: in all 9,200 tons, and that it was not 

 the best on the isle. (See answer to sixth int. p. 65, and 

 to eighth, p. 68.) 



3. Mr. John McCabe, in his printed deposition, made 

 June 28, 1856, sent by claimants to the State Department 



