742 GUANO 



cold water, Prof. Johnstone very justly observes 1 that. ' A singlo day of English rain 

 would dissolve out and carry into the sea a considerable portion of one of tho largest, 

 accumulations ; a single year of English weather would cause many of them entirely 

 to disappear.' 



Such being the case, we might expect to find similar accumulations in other hot and 

 dry climates, as in Egypt, and in Africa, e.g. in the neighbourhood of tho (iivat 

 Desert ; and only a few years since a considerable deposit of guano was found in the 

 Kooria Mooria Islands. 



In Peru the natives have employed it as a manure from the remotest ages, and have 

 by its means given fertility to the otherwise unproductive sandy soils along their coasts. 

 While Peru was governed by its native Incas, the birds were protected from violence 

 by severe laws. The punishment of death was decreed to the persons who daml i'> 

 land on the guaniferous islands during the breeding period of these birds, and to all 

 persons who destroyed them at this time. Overseers were appointed by the Govern- 

 ment to take care of the guano districts, and to assign to each claimant his due share 

 of the precious dung. The celebrated Baron Von Humboldt first brought specimens 

 to Europe in 1804, which he sent for examination to Fourcroy, Vauquclin, and 

 Klaproth, the best analytical chemists of the day ; and he spoke of it in tho following 

 terms : ' The guano is deposited in layers of 50 or 60 feet thick upon the granite of 

 many of the South-sea islands off the coasts of Peru. During 300 years the coast 

 birds have deposited guano only a few lines in thickness. This shows how great must 

 have been the number of birds, and how many centuries must have passed over in 

 order to form the present guano beds.' 



There appear to be three varieties in Peru : the white, grey, and red, the first being 

 the most recent, and the last the oldest ; and in the midst of the great accumulations of 

 the last kind, bones and feathers of birds are found (Frezier\ as if to remove any 

 doubt which might still remain as to its origin. 



Cincha Island Gruano. Much of the so-called Peruvian guano is exported from the 

 Cincha Islands. They are three in number, and lie in one line from north to south 

 about half a mile apart. Each island is from 5 to 6 miles in circumference, and con- 

 sists of granite covered with guano in some places to a height of 200 feet, in successive 

 horizontal strata, each stratum being from 3 to 10 inches thick, and varying in colour 

 from light to dark brown. No earthy matter whatever is mixed with this vast mass of 



1124 





excrement. At Mr. Eland's visit to these islands in 1842, he observed a perpendicular 

 surface of upwards of 100 feet of perfectly uniform aspect from top to bottom. In some 



1 ' On Guano. 1 ' Journal of tho Agricultural Society of England,' vol. ii. p. 315. 



