224 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



which is the principal cause of ocean tides. The waves wash the 

 American and Asiatic coasts, and are deflected back to the east 

 to the opposite shores in unceasing motion like the pendulum of 

 a clock, keeping one eternal round of time by tides like the motion 

 of the earth on her orbit and on her axis; hence the high tides 

 on the western shore of the ocean and on the eastern shores of 

 the continents, and that so rapid that, on the occasion of the great 

 earthquake at Japan in 1855, the surge or tidal wave reached 

 from Japan to California in 5 hours after the shock of the earth. 

 Along these great currents in the ocean the vegetable and 

 animal matter which fills the ocean finds its great deposits when 

 life becomes extinct — they become the feeding grounds of the 

 living races. Hence the great deposits of guano on the western 

 coast of Peru. Hence the great feeding grounds of fish on the 

 grand banks of Newfoundland, Scotland, Norway, California, 

 Oregon, Behrings Straits and Brazil. Hence the sea eels or the 

 black La Mer, on the coasts of New Zealand, new Holland, and 

 at the Polynesian islands. Hence the great whaling grounds on 

 the coast of America and Brazil, in the Okotsch sea, the Indian 

 ocean and the coasts of Africa. Hence the sperm whale only is 

 found within the tropics where an abundance of food of a pecu- 

 liar kind is supplied to produce the white flesh and bone of the 

 sperm whale. 



The largest of the Chincha group is two miles in length and a 

 quarter of a mile wide. Tliis contains only a small quantity of 

 guano. The most northerly is the smallest, being about a mile 

 in length by half a mile in breadth. Guano on this island is 

 250 feet deep. This island contains a Chinese settlement of 

 Coolies, about one thousand in number, who are employed in 

 digging guano and loading the vessels. A task is given them 

 each day, and if the gang fail to get out the given number of 

 wagon loads of two tons each a day their bondage is continued 

 a longer period to make it up, so many months or days being 

 added as wagon loads are wanting. 



The Coolies are cheated into the belief that they are to be 

 shipped from China to California and the gold diggings, and are 

 further deceived by the offer of a free passage. The knowing 

 Chinese or the Mandarins ship them. The ship master carries 

 them to the Peruvian coast and sells the cargo of living Chinese 

 to the Peruvian government for his freight money. All this 

 time the Chinamen are kept in irons and confined below in the 

 hold of the ship. 



