AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 221 



Mr. Nash read the following paper : 



PERUVIAN GUANO. 

 An account of the Guano trade at the Chincha Islands on the coast 



of Peru. 



An intelligent gentleman, named F. Nash, of New- York, who 

 has been employed in loading ships with guano at Chincha Islands, 

 on the coast of Peru, has communicated to me much interesting 

 information with regard to the trade. He has been at the Islands 

 at three different times, and nearly six months in all. 



The last time he was there was in the fall and summer of 1855, 

 He says that he found at times, five hundred sail of vessels toge- 

 ther at the Islands loading with guano, generally large ships; one 

 ship was 4,51)0 tons burden. Not less than 500 sail of vessels 

 are now at the Islands loading for the United States, Spain, Por- 

 tugal, France, and to English and German ports, some cargoes are 

 sent to Constantinople and some to Russian ports in the Black 

 Sea. This was before the war in the Crimea. The Russian trade 

 will now open e[gain, both from the Black Sea and the Baltic. 

 Freights are hii^, <£6. 10s. are often paid per ton for Liverpool 

 and Hampton Roads. Generally 10s. more a ton freight is paid 

 to Europe. At tlie rate at which guano is now shipped from the 

 Chincha Islands, it will be exhausted in eight years. Not a ton 

 will be left. Twenty thousand tons are sometimes removed from 

 the Islands in a single day. 



These Islands are situated opposite to the city of Pisco, 130 

 miles south and southeast from Callao and Lima, on the west 

 coast of Peru, within the tropics, in latitude about 13 deg. 46 

 min. south of the Equator, in a great bay or bight of the coast. 

 It never freezes, snows or rains at these Islands; fogs are seldom 

 seen; but in the winter months, which are June, July and Au- 

 gust, dews come on occasionally at night. Water does not fall 

 in sufficient quantities to furnish a drink at the Islands from one 

 year's end to another, nor do the eaves of the houses drop water. 



The Chincha Islands form a group about ten miles from the 

 main land on the Peruvian coast. The rise and fall of the tide 

 at the Islands are regular, and often equal six feet. The current 

 of the gulf stream works up along the coast from the Straits of 

 Magellan and Cape Horn out of the Atlantic Ocean towards Pana- 

 ma bay, by Valparaiso, Lima and Callao. This current is one 

 branch of the Gulf-stream which divides on the coast of Brazil ; 

 one current runs north to the Gulf of Mexico, the other south to- 

 wards Cape Horn, the coast south and east of Callao, and forms a 



