64 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 706 



out. If the best solution is not attainable, 

 then the second best may be adopted, but it 

 may be the earnest hope of all that, after the 

 fullest consideration of the matter, aU parties 

 interested may be led to cooperate in the at- 

 tainment of a plan by which the interests of 

 national agriculture may be safeguarded with- 

 out the sacrifice of any legitimate interest. 



The problem before the government, the 

 national agriculture, and the exporting com- 

 pany, is this: How can the guano industry 

 be saved to the future? Certainly no legiti- 

 mate interest can be furthered by a continu- 

 ance of the present unsatisfactory system, 

 with its sacrifice of the birds. 



I think the solution of the problem will be 

 furthered if we put the question in this way: 

 What system of regulation will result in the 

 greatest annual deposit of guano twenty years 

 hence ? 



NOTE 



Without attempting at thia time precise 

 figures, the following considerations are sug- 

 gestive and not misleading. 



If we take a cubic meter of guano as a ton, 

 then, with an average thickness of 10 cm. 

 (4 inches), an area 10 meters by 10 meters, or 

 100 square meters, would yield ten tons of 

 guano, and on 60,000 square meters there 

 would be 6,000 tons. A point of significance, 

 economically speaking, is the commercial 

 value of permitting the birds to make the 

 deposit even one centimeter thicker during 

 the year. The flock of cormorants, Phalacro- 

 corax hougainvillei, which covered very close- 

 ly an area of 60,000 square meters (15 acres) 

 and was the largest single aggregation of 

 birds on the coast of Peru, was seen on the 

 south Chincha island last year. It is easy to 

 find that the nests average about three to the 

 square meter, giving a total of about 180,000 

 nests. Allowing four birds to the nest, that 

 is, a pair of adults and a pair of young, we 

 have 720,000 birds. Two months later I esti- 

 mated the flock as fifty per cent, larger, the 

 island being at that time, in fact, practically 

 entirely and densely covered with birds. It 

 is not extravagant, then, to say that there 

 were at least one million birds. Of course, 

 very much smaller flocks are commonly esti- 



mated at " millions." Nor, again, does it 

 seem out of reason to say that, had this island 

 been opened by the government for extraction 

 of guano, each month that the work endured 

 would have caused the loss from this island 

 of nearly 1,000 tons of guano, a part of which 

 quantity, it is true, would have been deposited 

 on other islands, but a large part of which 

 would doubtless have been irrevocably lost. 

 However, the main point to bear in mind, 

 both from the point of view of the economist 

 and from that of the naturalist, is this — that 

 the continual disturbance of the birds means 

 inevitably their gradual extermination. 



Egbert E. Coker 

 Lima, Peett, 

 April 8, 1908 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE PHILOSOPHICAI, SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 651st meeting was held on May 23, 1908, 

 President Bauer presiding. By invitation. Pro- 

 fessor Bailey Willis, of the U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey, presented and explained the proposal of the 

 Washington Academy of Sciences to establish a 

 weekly Journal of Science. The character and 

 scope of the proposed publication were described 

 at some length. The academy is to bear the 

 entire cost of maintaining the Journal for the 

 first three years and during this time the mem- 

 bers of the affiliated societies are to receive the 

 publication free of cost. In return for this serv- 

 ice during the three years' experimental stage 

 of the Journal the academy asks that the affili- 

 ated societies shall give the Journal their pro- 

 grams to print and for which they shall pay. 

 Short abstracts of the papers read before the 

 societies are to be submitted to the society for 

 publication. At the close of the three years' 

 experimental period it is proposed that the Jour- 

 nal shall thereafter be paid for by the affiliated 

 societies at the rate of two dollars per member 

 per annum. 



Mr. R. L. Faris read a paper on "Tides in the 

 Solid Earth observed by Dr. Heoker," being a 

 review of the results of the horizontal pendulum 

 observations recently published by Dr. Heoker at 

 Potsdam. This paper will be published in full in 

 the May, 1908, number of the Monthly Weather 

 Review. 



R. L. Faeis, 

 Secretary 



