Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1854-03-10
MISCELLANEOUS.
From the N. Y. Courier and Enquirer.

From the N Y Courier and Enquirer.
THE CHlNCHA ISLANDS-GUANO.
We have procured the following minute and graphic de-
scripon OF the Guano deposites upon the Chncha Islands
from Intelligent traveller has just returned from
visit 10 them and who, as will be seen, is close and
thoughtful observer:
rounded hills and nearly every part of all of them
following the inequalities of the underlying rock A, dis
tance IL makes them all TO be islands Of rock border
ed BY cavernous perpendicular cliffs and covered with red
dish yellow sand but little lighter in coler than the volcanic
sand which everywhere hills and plains nges the Peru
Wan Coast Where il has been away is lighter sI,
being of undecided mixture Of red, white. yellow and
sort of subochre be precise about
color of white and ashes OF anthracite coal mingled in
equal proportions. On the sides Of the cuttings where
has been taken away may be TO lie in separately
losed layers strata generally parallel with the plane of the
horizon Of all thcknesses from that of of paste.
board to two three inches; the red layers usually
the thckest but they were of all shades and succeeded
each other without any ascertainabe order red white
brownish, grayish fein yellow earthly white brown red
and 30 on-so that could adopt theory which
deposits made different seasons, year alr f
ages and that each season had hue
6 on CO IN , o. ae different species of
Indeed interested iu the inquiry as no one could
being in singular place. was able 10 satisfy
myself with any hypothesis to account for the being
by birds and SEALS there can be no doubt Every part OF 1t
abouuds with the remains of them. Eggs and wing bones
of BIRDS and canine teeth Of sea lions changed 70 ammonia
from the base of the cutting the north island where the
ground Is deepes-a hundred and fifty feet below the
face After going down few feet the whole substance of
satied deposit is the Throughout In some pla
difference 10 depth of color perceptibe in
ti2uous foot in thickness extending along
the whole of the cuttings where they exposed. This
would include many Of the thin strata that must have
taken years. and perhaps hundreds Of years It's formation
What could have operated give marked change
of color while the producing and slratyog agencies were
unchanged, through 80 long time2 Why should whole
series of strata the n substance ana FORM be edder
browner than other series above and below it : could
for this than for the rreguarty OF the stra
IA Themselves.
Buried in The guano also at great Depths fragments of
granite worn but freshly fractured like Fragments
thrown off 10 blasting and chipping They In pieces
large that birds seals could have brought them
there's there Ia granite than San Gallean leland
nearly twenty miles to the southwark. How shall We &C.
count for their being there2
convexity of the hills They level. And remark
ed In the only place where the cuttings gave opportunity
for observing that they continued nearly the level
on two elevations and did follow depression of
uncomfortable valley They cropped out the sides of one
swell gentle roll of the surface and appeared another
as the intervening depression had been worn away by the
action of But how, the euano has been for the
last few centuries in process OF formation by birds and SEALS
should these cropping the
face for should have thai the edges OF the layers
the sides of the elevations within few feet
and minple there with loose upslracd puano which
surface covering everywhere II the horizontal strata had
been submerged and worn away by water into elevations
and depressons seemed the only reasonable superstition
why should the constantly forming deposit in the ages
since It's emegepce take the form OF the mounds and valleys
which 1t res,s7 We cannot suppose that the islands
nave changed tOer nunurcu years.
time one would think that strata would have been
formed which would have oveaid tho other like rnd -
But the level include all the gunno, and pre-
their places nearly the height of the elevations II
Is that the seals said have resorted TO the highest
places they could nd and their skeletons may still be
on the summit the South Island eas four hundred
above The level This might part account four the
parent outcroppng of tho slraa the seals might have pre-
ferred the elevations and deserted the and the
deposition This the only snppostion; and The sa
ia were strongly marked and the undua'ons Of the eur
face gentle that this fer from satisfactory.
That such great deposits could have been formed by
seals aud birdie alone all incredible; il is only the
orthe Hegulay in the order of the strata,
the differences In color 10 contiguous series Of the
almost homogeneous mass the presence of fragments
granite and the apparent independence of the strata and
of conformity with the inequalities Of the surface.
On each of the three Chinchss place where the uni
fomity Of tho cliffs IL Interrupted and the hill OF guano
slopes down TO narrow beach. 1t said by English
captains and othcrs who had visited the islands fifteen
twenty years ago. that Observation-Disclosures Of them ex
pressed t-of SEALS might then be going up thes.
slopes certain times of the year 10 the tops Of the hills
On the south Island saw many skeletons OF Them lying
the surface or half buried In IT, and ancled could trace
where the bodies had turned and what was lett OF them
still turning to guano. The animals have reached
there Of their accord Though why they should choose
ascend so high of their usual element hot dusty
h and how they able to drag themselves over
ly mile and four or five hundred feet upward arc points
on which they have not left us any information. But tht
fact s unquestionabe and another singuarty Ia the
tura history of these mysterious II they nvad
ed the high land In such numbers related the arges
portion of the guano may be readily accounted for. Multi
tudes were left deud tho old frequently say tina
for this purpose alone 10 die ascend
ed The vestees of such hosts have been
The sea lion is and producer most magai
cent scale well as practical free ade go there no
If his imports and exports Coprophsgous birds must
have accompanied his progress in mytads the turkey
cards have hung bis dying carcass like The breath
Of the SOUTH and the vuures OF the have
hoyered aud tapped around him. shaking thousand odors
from their dewy wings.
The result OF all my Investigations OF this delicate sub
lc IL that the reddish seoks in the are from small
hros and ihe remains of seaons which the vultures could
not carry Always the other lighter coored strata generally
thinner are from pecans and larger birds There
10 nothing In the way OF tho supposou that the whole de-
post may have been formed long snce the building of the
Pyramids OF the Ne except the granite and the
valHes; and am inclined to think il of recent
formation notwithstanding these Very little decay or loss
takes place after the vutures have done their work and The
chemical action changing the tough hides and bones 10
mona has begun The climate is dry that the VIOLA,
aka Free but remains there forever Pcrhans The
granite fragments thrown there in of the
lions that may have occurred this coast within the last
thousand years. but then they found through the whole
substance No seaions visit the islands largo enough
to have carried them there Perhaps too the islands have
been submerged great waters have flowed them in
earthquakes such destroyed old Caao and perhaps
Fortunately travellers are not Obliged 10 account for all The
unexpainable phenomena they NEE, with shall there
FORE leave the subject with the usual Spanish QUEEN sabe
II may have been already inves,igated not should DO
brought to the notice of scientific curious inquiry