GUANO 207 



possible was done to further individual interest in 

 guano seeking. 



The G-uano Act set forth that any American 

 citizen who discovered an island not under the 

 jurisdiction of a foreign government might, if 

 he desired, remove any guano which might be 

 present, under protection of the United States. 

 Hitherto national policy had frowned upon ex- 

 tension into territory outside the continental 

 limits of North America; but now the necessity 

 for an increased supply of fertilizing material 

 led to a deviation from this traditional policy. 

 It was declared, however, that only peaceable 

 occupation of the islands would be countenanced 

 by the United States; any departure from 

 this line of conduct would mean the loss of 

 the island to the discoverer, whether private indi- 

 vidual or developing company. Under the act, 

 upon ,the exhaustion of the guano beds the island 

 must revert to the United States as its lawful 

 owner; and it might be returned to its former 

 status of unclaimed territory if the government so 

 desired. 



By 1898 more than seventy islands had been 

 located under this Guano Act — ^fifty-four in the 

 South Pacific and seventeen in the West Indies. 

 Of these the majority proved worthless, but a few 

 yielded small amounts of the desired product. In 

 this way, between 1869 and 1898, something more 



