394 Refuse of ilie Cod-Fishery of Newfoundland. 



Should further experience confirm the evidence of these results, 

 there is no doubt that this island could supply a vast amount 

 of the manure in question, affording at the same time an ad- 

 ditional valuable article of export from this colony. There are 

 many parts of the island and its dependencies from whence the 

 fishing is extensively prosecuted, and where there is little or no 

 agriculture, in which the manufacture of manure from the offal 

 of fish at present thrown away as valueless might be extensively 

 and advantageously conducted. The carcases of seals which are 

 now abandoned and left upon the ice, the skins and fat only of 

 these animals being taken on board the sealing vessels, might 

 also, in the event of the failure of the main object of the voyage, 

 be made available in the furtherance of the manufacture in 

 question. 



In submitting these observations to your Lordship's notice, it 

 is due to Lieutenant Gautier, who has been for a long series of 

 years employed on the Newfoundland station, under the French 

 government, and has made himself generally acceptable to the 

 subjects of both nations, to express my acknowledgments for the 

 promptitude and courtesy with which he has placed at my dis- 

 posal the valuable information contained in my letter. 



I am, &c., Ker B. Hamilton. 



Government-house^ Newfoundland, 

 August 23, 18*53. 



On hoard the Veloce, St. JoJm ^s, 

 Neiofoundlcmd, Aug. 8, 1853. 



^iR, — It is perfectly understood that guano owes its efficacy to the large 

 amounts of nitrogen and phosphates which it contains. It is simply the pro- 

 duce of decomposition, partly of the bodies of animals, but mainly of the 

 dung of sea-birds. The decay, therefore, of such animals and of fish is the 



source of the virtues of guano If, then, we can obtain a considerable 



quantity of the flesh of fish, decompose, dry, and pulverize it, we may evidently 

 present agriculture with a substance equal to Peruvian guano. 



The results of the first attempts at such a manufacture, in 1851, have 

 yielded, on analysis — 



Nitrogen, per cent. (12-00) 



Moisture I'OO 



Nitrogenous organic matter , . . .80*00 

 Soluble salts — namely, common salt, carb. ammonia, 



and a trace of sulphates . . . , 4"50 

 Phosphate of lime and magnesia . . .14-10 

 Carbonate of lime . . . . . .0*06 



Silica 0-02 



Magnesia, and loss . . • . • .0*32 



100 



