At an, early day it was discovered that laysan, or Moller as it \ras then 
Known, held valuable deposits of guano, and for a period of years the island 
was of considerable commercial importance. A guano oompany established 
tTfulrlTOj thqnei built buildings and maintained a considerable force of men. 
Small ships called by the dozen to carry away the harvest of nitrogen 
garnered from the sea^through untold ages \ in living guisejas the food of 
albatross, tern, booby, and shearwater and deposited as waste about their 
CJ 
breeding places enriched by the bones and bodies of untold thousands of 
the birds dead from natural or violent Causes in their crowded rookeries. 
Mixed with coral ahd~sheIT~3and ; the recent deposits are loose and earthy. 
while those of older periods have become hardened into a soft rock that 
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is exposed in layers over the surface or is encountered in digging at 
shallow depths. In appoaranoe this phosphate resembles sand stone but 
is in reality lime, as it is ocmposed of guano and ooral sand cemented 
v 
firmly together. In its brownish trasses one encounters frequent particles 
of egg shell or fragments of bone that attest dearly the manner of its 
formation. 
The nineties of the last century marked the hei^it of the grano 
industry, and from 1900 there was a gradual decline. The larger part of 
the deposits had then been exhausted and at the same time farmers in the 
states were being supplied with cheaper fertilizers from points near home. 
By 1908 shipments ceased and the island was practically deserted, leaving 
a number of frame buildings clustered about the landing, a few hundred yards 
of rails laid aoross the sand and throe or four scattered piles of rook 
dug out for shipment and then deserted. 
