A REMOTE GUANO BED. 
263 
remained here in hopes of adding to our stock of oil, 
the sea being rather noted for its whales outside Prince 
Charles Island, but on the fourth we bore up for the 
fiord, having had no chance of gain. 
Here a party of Swedes have entered into a curious 
speculation. Agriculturalists in England and elsewhere 
having once benefited by the application of guano to 
the soil, seem in nowise inclined to forego the gain it 
brings. The sea coasts and rocky islands, the cliffs and 
coral reefs of the world, are ransacked in search of the 
precious stimulant to vegetation, and the homes of 
countless birds we have seen cannot be far removed 
from deposits the farmer covets. So, here also have 
come the guano-hunters, and having prospected, they 
have settled to the work ; a hut large enough to shelter 
the gang of diggers has been constructed near the shore, 
and all the appliances are ready. But to winter here 
has been more than the Swedes would undertake, and 
for the present the place is deserted ; some few Nor¬ 
wegians we have met around the coasts have stopped 
for a time in the place, hunting, as we were lately 
doing, for whales, but, like us, they had no success. All 
the long season they waited for the whale that never 
came, and as there was nothing else, they left, empty 
as they came. All the season went by without a chance 
presenting itself by which a single boat could fill her 
