166 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



SOMETIMES LABORERS DYING ON THE ISLANDS ARE BURIED IN OLD GUANO 



Subsequent excavations bring the coffins to the surface. Some of the bodies are almost per- 

 fectly mummified, as a result of the dry atmosphere and the effect of the guano. 



store of the company, while two smaller 

 buildings housed the representatives of 

 the government and the exporting cor- 

 poration respectively. 



By far the greatest portion of the 

 guano that has been exported consisted 

 of the ancient deposits, called "mineral" 

 guano, which in places covered the islands 

 to great depths. This has been simply 

 stripped away until scarcely any of the 

 old guano remains except some of the 

 lowest grades that scarcely justify expor- 

 tation. 



It is an interesting fact that many de- 

 posits were found deeply buried beneath 

 layers of sand and broken rock, and such 

 beds have led some to suppose that the 

 guano could not be of animal origin. 

 The blowing sand and falling rocks from 

 the weathering hills would readily ex- 

 plain the covering of old beds. 



MILLIONS OF TONS OE GUANO LOST 



When one watches the present accu- 

 mulation of guano at the rate of more 

 than four inches per year in some places, 

 or at the probable rate of twenty to thirty 

 thousand tons per year along the entire 

 coast, the wonder is, not that the great 

 beds should have accumulated, but that 

 so few millions of tons should have been 

 found. In past times, undoubtedly, great 

 losses must have occurred from the fall- 

 ing of cliffs undermined by the surf, 



from the breaking up of the islands by 

 the slow, wearing action of the waves, 

 and perhaps from slight subsidence due 

 to seismic disturbances. 



It is within the bounds of possibility 

 that additional deposits, buried beneath 

 the surface, may yet be located. Unless 

 this be the case, the industry is perma- 

 nently reduced to the annual deposits, 

 which scarcely exceed the demands of 

 Peruvian agriculture in its present con- 

 dition, without providing for the great 

 future developments in land cultivation 

 in that country that must follow sooner 

 or later with the adoption of more elab- 

 orate systems of irrigation. 



Since the important birds have been 

 greatly reduced in numbers, it is reason- 

 able to expect a substantial increase 

 under natural conditions, if interference 

 with the breeding be reduced to the mini- 

 mum consistent with the utilization of 

 the deposits. The future of Peruvian 

 agriculture and industrial life seems 

 rather closely linked with the protection 

 of the guano birds. 



It is a fortunate thing to have such an 

 appealing commercial reason for the fos- 

 tering of the birds. Government, mort- 

 gagees, and agriculturists must sooner or 

 later combine effectively to obstruct the 

 extermination of these resources and to 

 promote an increase to the maximum 

 number of birds permitted by Nature. 



