The Express.
London, England, 1852-09-23 00:00:00

THE OUANO DIWANGS.

[Prom Dleitaasei o ft .astekee Washes.]
Three ?oohs, without a blade of grass upon them
-their brown surface cracked by • hot sun, whose beams
an rarely intercepted by • cloud—rocks upon which no
✓ain has fallen sine, the Deluge—yield at present the chief
Valise of Peru. They are the Chincha Islands. Ships are
over gathering about them to bear off the fatness covering
their ribs ; that is to say, the guano, which shall fertilise
the overlaid and 'retool fields of distant countries. To this
swum district may now be added that of the Lobes Islands.
to which Peru lays • disputed claim ; but I believe that the
deposit of guano in the Lobos Islands falls fax short, both
in quantity and In quali:y, of that on the Chinches. from
which all the Peruvian guano brought into Great Britain
has been taken.
My starting point for the guano digeings was Port
Philip, or Victoria, as it is now called ; but we are now
going gently, if you pleas- before the south-eist trade
wind, ju-t oeening out the 'hey of Callao, the seaport of
Lima. For the list few hours we have been glidiug slowly
ah a t the coast, gazing upon scenery which I should like to
describe, but dare not ; for though, like meet melon, a
pretty good hand at painting a lower masthead or a topsail
yard, I Coll make nothing of a sle, tch in pin and ink.
Faint for yourself, therefore, the loam Misses of rugged
brown mountains, rising in steps from the green sea, and
the white !Uri at their hose, unit the pure blue sky seems
to be ftStitl4 411 their di.eant peeks, where the harsh con-
trast between earth and air is softer el, leas by distance
than by the dim grater of the everlasting snow. A fleecy
bank or cloud ascending from some unseen valley belongs
also to the picture.
Though we are bound only far the Chinch& Islands, yet
we come to an anchor at Culloo : we have aiready passed
the islands once. Here I may say • word on what e a great
sanoyance to all masters el ships visiting Pero, and •
source of additional expense to English ship.owners and
charterers. Every guano ship is compelled to enter in-
wards and outwards at Callao; the., in the lint lace,
sailing about one hundred and fifty miles beyond the
islands to reach the pert ; then, always againt a bead
sled, beating the hundred and fifty mass hack spin to
Pico, a smell port close to the (leach to. Here she an-
chors, and goes through some formal perform once or other,
remaining sometance two Or three days. Then she sails
bee k again nine or ten mica to the Winne+, where she loads
and afterwards returns to risco. Then she gees back to
Callao, and finally panes she islands for the fifth, and
happily, the last time, on tier hem:want ;imams. Over all
this battledore duty a ship often wastes nearly a month,
besides generally losing some of her hands [rein desertion
in Collar. Cr ruin it is, however, that there is invariably
more formality in petty principalities and dwarf repehlies,
than instates which are more able to enforce respect. Peru
is by no meatta a tremendous power, and it is a token of
good in the way of eivilisasion, that the huge merchant
men should let themselves be bullied ty her, when the
whole fleet of the golden republic might be sailed off with
in one parcel, quietly stowed away on board a Canard liner.
It consisted, when 1 saw it, of the steamer Rime, two
VIM; the brig Osman's, eight guns; and a little schooner
of four guns; the latter stationed at the islands to enforce
respect from some aixtyor seventy vessels of all nations.
And now up Cameo the anchor from its here,' amongst
the rains of the old town of Callao, ov ,r which our ship is
floating. A long low point still shows the remains of the
last meal made by the earthquake, which, like t dragon
with the stomach of an ostrich, has so froquently snapped
up tit bits of town, that the inhabitants appear to have de-
clined providing stone fruit for it. The present houses of
Callao are mere sheds of cane and mud, which, in case of a
disturbance, yield no heavy brick-bats to he cast down on
the Leads of their inhabitants. Tall houses built of any heavy
material are not cligiale residences in an earthquake distriete
Attar five days tacking against the trade wind we round
the large island of San Omlan, which forms part of thee'
Chincha group, but contains little guano. We anchor then
before tho town of I'i9Vl—a little Callao in point of sue,
bat greater than Callao in the points of dirt and drunken-
ness. It gives its name to a kind of white brandy,well known
in the South Seas. It is also especially noted as the resi-
dence of an English butcher, who supplies his countrymen
with all ni inner of provisions, from green turtle to red
herrings. I have little dnubt that his prices are remune-
rating, as he has the shipping trade all to himself.
Again the ship is in motion, and in au hour the proxi-
mity of the guano islands is evident to ad but the most
nominal none, for though still five or six miles to wind-
ward, the scent of the guano becomes swinger at every
ship's length. The three islands lie nearly due north and
south; the breadth of the passage between them being
about a nei!e in one instance, and two miles in the other.
The south island is as yet untouched, and from a visit I
paid it, I shout,' suppose it to contain more guano than is
found in either of the others. The middle jelled, at which
we leaded, has been moderately winked, but the greatest
quantity of guano is taken from the north island. In their
general formation the islands are alike. They all rise, on
the side next the main land, In a perpendicular wall of
rock ; from the edge of this precipice, the guano then
Mopes upwards to the centre of each island, where a pin-
nacle of rock rims above the surface: front this point it de-
scends to the sea by a rude declivity, the guano continu-
ing to within a few feet of the water. Each island has, at
• distance, the appearance of a flattened cone, but they
bars all been originally broken into rocky bills and valleys.
The deposits of guano having gradually filled up the
valleys and risen above the rocks, the cuttings of
the guano diggers vary from • depth of eighty
or • hundred feet to merely a few iilCl2,ll.
Though the Camels are not large—their average
circumference being about two miles the accu-
mulation of guano is almost incredible. Calculations as to
the probable quantity must, on account of the varying
depth of the deposits, be very uncertain. I remember
making an ge of the depth, and deducing therefrom •
rough emit/oat. that the three small island. alone contain
upwards of two hundred and fifty millions of tons of pare
guano, which, at the rate of supply which has been going
on during the list five or six years. would require about
one hundred rind eighty years for removal, and, at its Eng-
halt value—which, after deducting freight, is about five
pounds per ton—would be worfi twelve hundred and
fifty millions sterling. This is exclusive of vast clean.
tines which hate been used by the i'erevians themselves.
A recent traveller in the country asserts that guano was
used in the time of the Incas, and that the Spaniards leaned
its use from the Indians, who employed it coostantly. it
is chiefly applied in Pena to the cultivation of maize and
potatoes. The mode of applying tie manure differs from
that generally adopted in kmoliod. After the plants ap-
pear above tee ground, • small trench is opened, in some
cases round each rout, in others, along the lines. In this
trench • small quantity of guano is placed, and slightly
covered with earth; the whole field is then laid under
water, and allowed to remain in that condition for • Csfs
taia number of hours—from 20 to dl. The water is them
drained off, and the effect of the process is soon manifest in
the rapid growth of the plants. Where a sufficient supply
of water cannet readily 'is procured, other means of irriga-
tion are adopted. but the guano is sown broadcast, us
In England. The name tool( is Indian, originally buena,
signifying the exeremeut of animals, but altered to beano
by the Spanish Peruvians; and, owing to their strong as
• of the h, the English have taken the word from their
lips is the shape of guano. It is found on all parts of the
coast of South America, even so far south as Cape Horn ; but
that obtained from the Chinch& Islands is the most highly
prized, probably for its esteems dryness, as the islands lie
within latitudes in which—on that coast—rain never falls.
Aid now, having anchored between the north and mid-
dle islands, at the latter of which we are to load, we
will borrow the boat and have a closer look at the huge
muck heap. Pulling half round the island to the landing
place, we step cohere en • narrow slip of sandy beach,
which appears to be cleared from the surrounding rooks for
our special convenience. Our appearance disturbs thou-
sands of the web-footed natives; these thousands count
with the old hands as nothing, for they tell us that the
shipping has e driven all the birds away. Sailing above us
is a neck of ;Klima', hovering over the clear water like
hawk., which they resemble in their mode of darting down
or stooping on their prey. One of these every instant drops
from the Hoek as though a ball had whistled through his
brain ; but, after • plunge. he is soon seen rising to the
surface withh a fish struggling in his capacious pouch.
Nearer to us. whirling round our heeds, are gannets,
mews, mutton-birds, divers, gulls, gnaw* birds, and a host
of others whioe names are unknown to the vulgar. On the
detached reek. and the lower edge of the island—member
of a pretty numerous eontrecetlon—stands the penguin, the
parson-bird of the sailor, whose good same is fairly tined
by his tut away black coat, white tie, and solemn de-
memour. His short legs planted far hack, and his long
body, do not fit him for • walk ashore ; but he will tit for
hours on • little rock just washed by the waves, apparently
in such deep absence of mind that prawn- by are tempted
to approach in hope of catching him. Just as the boat
nears him, and • band is already stretched out to
grasp his neck, away he goes head over heels in a
most irreverent and ridiculous manner, dives under the
boat, and shows hie head again about • quarter of • mile
out at sea, where the sailor may catch him who can, for he
is the fastest swimmer and the hest diver that ever dipped.
Stepping over the mortal remains of several bee-limn, its a
few strides we are on the guano, and at the next step, in it
lap to our knees.
The guano is regularly stratified - the lower strata are
solidified by the weight of' the upper, and have acquired •
dark red colour, which becomes gradually lighter towards
the surface. On the surface it has a whitey•hrown light
groat, very well harked by the son ; it is • craft containing
eggs, be completely honeycombed by the birds, which
scratch deep, oblique holes in it to serve as nests, wherein
eggs, *Odom more than two to each nest, are deposited.
These hole, ones running into each other, from long gal-
leries with sits, sal entrances, and this mining system is so
elabortely carried out, that you can scarcely put • foot on
any part of the islands without sinking to the knee and being
tickled with the ranee of a hard beak digging into your un-
protected ankles. The egg-shells and the bones and re-
mains of fish brought by the old birds for their young,
must form a considerable part of the substasee of the
guano, which is thus in • great measure deposited beneath
the surface, and then thrown out by gi birds.
Having with some difficulty and lit' sonde, SWAM t.
of skin from our legs, reached the it of the Mood, we
dated the side leading to the diggings, and SNUB Wive at
the ggpitah It stands on a small space clearest eir guano,
and seaside of twenty or thirty miserable shalom erali
formed by four slender posts driven into the greaad, with a
eat roof of gram matting mad Wiese el be mesa
stretched on three sides* I= olds *kgYR
Ilearesly ea amide of de EN. imsE
dame costa* amp a lbw grid WO It
dirty 00444.001 001111 lb gmcbseighbtVw
the bats a mon " bolljoisirio
olibroiraft)
.i..eramploo
only s at.
ril=pereejlo apsal—Ql blanket ef the
seem Vibe alarm amid : ea old pea*/ mid a