This is not only the most valuable, but is found in the largest
quantities of any other guano known. That which has been sent to this
country and England, in such quantities within the last ten years, was
taken from the Chincha Islands, which are situated between latitude 13°
and 14°, and at about twelve miles from the coast of Peru, in the bay of
Pisco. The great value of the Peruvian guano, arises from the fact,
_that rain never falls upon the islands where guano is found_. The air
is always dry, and the sun shines with intense power, sufficient to
evaporate all the juices from flesh, so that meat can be preserved sweet
without salt. The waters surrounding these islands may be said to be
literally alive, so full are they of fish. Almost as numerous as the
fish, are the birds which satisfy their voracious appetites upon this
finny multitude, until they can gorge no more, when they retire to the
islands to deposit their excrement, composed of the oily flesh and bones
of their only food, until the mass which has been accumulating for
thousands of years, is so great as almost to exceed human belief.
Humbolt, in his history of South America, states, some of these deposits
are 50 or 60 feet thick. Many have thought this the "romance of
history," but the actual surveys made by the Peruvian government five or
six years ago, have proved that the guano in many places is more than
twice that depth; and as there is good reason to believe, and as may be
seen by the diagram on page 79, it is probably 300 feet thick in some of
the depressions of the natural surface. And this has been accumulated by
an annual aggregation, so slow as to be scarcely visible from year to
year, until the quantity now exceeds 20,000,000 of tons.
As before stated, the Chincha islands are three in number; the Lobos
islands two; these are situated off the north part of the coast of
Peru.
If the right of Peru to the guano is to be disputed, let it be done by
national vessels and not by armed privateers. If farmers are convinced
that we have made true statements of the value of guano in renovating
the poor and worn out fields of America, let them purchase at once. The
only question to ask is not whether we can go to the Lobos Islands to
get guano--nor whether it would be better to buy it of government
agents, or speculators on private account, but