80 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 31. 
“ The first duty of the crew after the ship’s arrival is to 
discharge the extra ballast, and, as the captains have no 
dread of port-officers or harbour masters, the sand or stone 
is quietly tossed over the side, until there is barely sufficient 
left in the hold to keep the vessel on an even keel. In the 
meantime the long-boat is hoisted out of her berth amidships, 
and a part of her crew aro busily employed in bringing off 
boat loads of guano from the island, to replace the dis¬ 
charged ballast. The peculiar odour pervades the' whole j 
ship; the carefully tarrred rigging becomes a dirty brown, 
while the snow-white decks and closely-furled sails assume 
the same dark hues. 
“ On the side next tho mainland the islands rise preci¬ 
pitately from the sea to a considerable height, presenting 
only a bare dark wall of rock. From tho upper edge of the 
precipice the huge mound of guano slopes rapidly upward 
for a short distance, and then spreads into a level surface 
that gradually descends on every other side to within a few 
yards of the water. Here and there huge craggy points 
thrust their white heads through the brown crust of guano, 
which has completely filled up tho deep hollows that have 
originally existed in the island, and would soon, had it not 
been disturbed, have covered even tho crests of what were 
once tall pinnacles. The only safe landing-place is on a 
narrow strip of beach, tho remainder of the island being 
surrounded by low rock and small detached reefs ; but the 
| irregular formation has greatly facilitated tho loading of 
j ships, enabling the crews to accomplish that in a few days 
which, under other circumstances, must have cost them 
I studious weeks of labour. Close to the face of the rock the 
j water is deep enough to float the largest merchantman; and 
the steady constancy of tho trade-wind, which rarely in¬ 
creases beyond a pleasant breeze, enables the ship to lie in 
i perfect safety in close contact with her two most dangerous 
enemies, a rocky island, and a dead lee shore. 
I “ Having taken aboard by her boats sufficient guano to 
ballast her, the ship is hauled in eloso to tho steep reef, to 
which she is securely bound with warps and chains, two 
anchors being dropped to seaward, to enable her to haul off 
again when loaded. 
“ Down to the very edge of tho precipice, on its summit, 
comes the point of a triangular enclosure, open at its base, 
and made of strong stakes driven into the solid guano, and 
closely knit together with iron chains. At tho point resting 
upon the edge of the cliff there is a small opening, to which 
there is firmly attached a wide canvass pipe, which hangs 
j down the face of the precipice, and passes into tlio hold of 
the vessel beneath. The enclosure, which will contain 
several hundred tons, is filled with guano by the Indian 
| labourers, and a small line that encloses the mouth of the 
* pipe being slacked, the whole mass is poured into the ship 
at a rate which very soon completes her cargo. From 
different parts of the pipe bowlines lead to the mast-heads 
of the vessel, and from thence on deck, where they are tended 
by the crew, who alternately haul upon and slack them, so 
as to keep the long pipe in motion, and prevent its choking. 
Rut, however well they may succeed in that effort, the men 
have considerable difficulty in avoiding some such catastrophe 
in their own persons; for the guano, after falling from so 
great an elevation, rises through the hatchways in one im¬ 
mense cloud, and completely envelopes the ship, and renders 
the inhaling of anything else but dust almost a matter of 
impossibility. The men wear patent respirators, in the shape 
of bunches of tarry oakum, tied across their mouth and 
nostrils; but the guano mocks at such weak defences, and a 
brisk continued fusilade of sneezes celebrates the opening of 
the pipe, and accompanies, in repeated volleys and unwilling 
tears, tho unremitting shower of pungent dust. In the 
meantime a gang of Indians are at work in the hold, trim 
ining and levelling the guano as it pours from above. How 
they contrive to exist at all in such an atmosphere is a matter 
of astonishment; but even they are unable to remain below 
longer than twenty minutes at any one time. They are then 
relieved by another party, and return on deck perfectly 
naked, streaming with perspiration, and with them brown 
skins thickly coated with guano. The two parties thus 
alternately relieving each other, a ship of seven or eight 
hundred tons is loaded in two or three days—the Indians 
working during the night, and filling up the enclosure, 
ready for shipment the following day. A smaller enclosure 
and pipe supply the boats of the vessel anchored off the 
island. 
“ The guano is dug out with pick and shovel to the level 
of tho rock; and on the North island the cutting thus formed 
is in some places from CO to 80 feet in depth, in others it is 
only a few inches; but these shallow parts arc comparatively 
rare, and usually border on some deep valley, firmly packed 
with the prevailing substance. From the pressure of the 
j superincumbent mass, the lower strata have become almost 
as hard and compact as the rock itself, and the colour deepens 
from a light brown, or sometimes white, at the surface, to 
nearly black at the bottom of the cutting. 
“ The guano of the Chinca Islands is said to surpass all 
other deposits in its strength and fertilising qualities, and 
this is chiefly attributed to the fact that rain never falls on 
tho islands. Owing to this extreme aridity of the climate, 
the saline particles of the manure are never held in solution, 
and arc therefore less liable to be lost by evaporation than 
where tho surface of the mass is frequently washed by heavy 
rains. Large lumps of very strong and pure ammonia are, 
in fact, frequently turned up by the diggers. The thick fogs 
that at certain seasons are of nightly occurrence on the 
coast, convert the outer layer into a greasy paste, which is 
immediately baked by the sun into a hard crust, that prevents 
even the fogs from penetrating into tho interior. This crust 
is completely undermined by the birds that still frequent the 
island in vast numbers, though they are said to bear no i 
comparison to the myriads that formerly held sole and 
undisturbed possession of them. These are misos, garnets, 
penguins, pelicans, divers, sheer-beaks, and many other sorts 
of sea-fowl, but the most common is the guano bird, a very 
handsome creature, beautifully variegated, and decorated 
with two pendant ear-drops. Naturalists, delighting in hard 
words, call him, l believe, Suliela variegala. These web¬ 
footed colonists form regular towns beneath tho crust of the 
guano, and various settlements, communicating with each 
other by galleries, running in all directions, so that it is 
deemed almost impossible to set foot upon the untouched 
surface of the island without sinking to the knee in some 
feathered lady’s nursery, and eiLber smashing her eggs or 
mutilating her half-fledged progeny. The egg-shells, and 
the remains of fish brought to feed the young birds, or to be 
devoured at leisure by the old ones, must form a consider¬ 
able item in the deposits. 
“ Thickly tenanted as are tho islands and the air above, 
the waters beneath are no less full of life. Shoals of small 
fish are continually passing through the channels. Whales 
aro frequently seen rolling their huge bodies in the offing; 
and the numerous caves that perforate the island on every 
side aro inhabited by colonies of seals and sea-lions, that 
wage an unceasing predatory war upon the sparkling shoals 
that pass, unconscious of all danger, off their gloomy serf- 
bound territories. 
“ Tho islands themselves are perfectly barren. Not a 
blade of grass, nor even a particle of moss, exists upon 
them. They present only one brown arid expanse, incapable 
of furnishing food for the tiniest nibbler that ever gnawed a 
grain of corn; and yet they possess sufficient fertilising 
power to transform a barren desert into a fruitful garden, 
and they annually furnish food in other lands for thousands 
of hungry mortals who never even heard of their existence. 
They aro also completely destitute of water—the Indians, 
who live upon them, being supplied with this necessary of 
life by tho shipping, in turns. Every article of food is 
brought from I’isco, to which port the guano-diggers occa 
sionally resort to spend in extravagance and dissipation their 
hard-earned wages. The Commandant resides on the north 
island, in a miserable cottage; four poles stuck in the guano, 
with grass mats or a few reeds stretched between them, and 
covered in with a flat roof of the same material, form speci¬ 
mens of a high order of Chinca architecture. Furniture is, 
of course, unknown, and clothes aro as nearly so as possible; 
but the high wages given to tlio labourers appeal- to balance 
the desarjrcmens of their position, for several Englishmen 
are amongst their number. Some of these arc employed in 
mooring the ship alongside of the rock. 
“ Guano has been used for agricultural purposes in Peru 
ever since tho invasion of the Spaniards, and there are good 
grounds for believing that its use was known to the Indians 
long anterior to that period. It is now chiefly applied there 
