New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1855-12-14
Guano-Its History.

from the islands Of the Pacific, mostly Of the
Chincha group of the coast of Peru, and under
the dominion Of that government. It's sale is
made monopoly, and the avails, to great ex-
tent, 60 to pay the British holders OF Peruvian
government bonds, giving them, to all intents
and purposes, lien upon the profits of . treas
ure intrinsically more valuable than the gold
mines of California. There are deposites Of this
unsurpassed fertilizer in some places to the
depth of sixty or seventy feet, and over large
extents of surface.
The guano fields are generally conceded to be
| the excrements of aquatic fowls which live and
| nestle in great numbers around the islands.
| They seemed designed by nature to rescue, st
least in part, that untold amount of fertilixing
material which every river and brooklet is roll
ing into the sea- The wash OF alluyial soils, the
aoating refuse of the field and forest, and above
| all, the wasted materials of great cities, are
constantly being carried by the tidal currents
/ out to sea. These, to a certain extent at least
/ 90 to nourish, directly OF indirectly, submarine
/ vegetable and animal life, which in turn goes
/ to feed the birds, which at our own day are
brought away by the ship loadlrom the Chineha
1 islands.
The bird is . beautifully arranged chemical
laboratory, fitted up to perform single opera
ton. viz to take the fish as food, burn out the
/ carbon by means of its respiratory functions,
| and deposit the remainder in the shape of an
Incompatible fertilizer. But how mapy ages
have these depositions of seventy feet in thick
ness been accumulating
There are at the present day countless num-
bers Of the birds resting upon the islands at
night but, according to Baron Humboldt Ithe
excrements of the birds for the space of three
centuries, would not form stratum over one
third Of an inch in thickness. By an easy
mathematical calculation, it will be seen that
] at this rate Of deposition, it would take seven
thousand Eve hundred and sixty centuries, or
seven hundred and fifty y-sx thousand years, to
| form the deepest guano bed "
Such calculation carries us back well on to
former geological period, and proves one and
perhaps both, Of two things-Arst, that in past
ages an infinitely greater number Of these birds
lowered over the islands and secondly, that
the material world existed at period long
anterior to its fitness as the abode Of man. The
. length of mans existence in infnitesimal, COM
pared with such cycle of years and the
facts recorded on every leaf of the material
universe ought, If it does not, to teach us humil-
ity. That little bird, whose individual
existence is as nothing, should, in its united
: action, produce the means Of bringing back to
an active fertility whole provinces Of waste and
barren lands, is one Of q thousand facts to show
0 how apparently insignificant agencies in the
economy Of nature produce momentous results.
London Farmers Magazine.
Aruthian Abovion relates the following story:
. sc Once in my youth" said he, 81 went to Bay
8 aid, in Asia Minor. While sauntering about
q the bazaar, my attention was arrested by man
of o wretched and melancholy appearance,
restlessly wandering about and trembling incss-
sanity. On inquiring the cause Of his misera-
" BILE condition, the following story was told me
q He was once linen weaver, and resided st o
Il village at the foot of Mount Ararst. Falling
in love with his masters wife he induced her to
fy with him they betook themselves to the
mountains, and at evening reached q cave
10 where the woman rested while he went to seek
). provisions. After short absence he returned
= but great was his horror at beholding the wo
'. man in the jaws of monstrous snake, which
oi had already swallowed half her person, and wa!
only prevented from completing its repast By
her outstretched arms. sCut the snake viii
IF your SABRE cried she to the man, or slit it
n jaws on each side!' But the man was petri6ef
I. with fear. sAt least she entreated, hand m,
= the sabre, and let me rescue myself Her criel
were in vain, for he had lost all power OF exer.
ol ton. sAh = she then exclaimed in despair,
re see you are coward; will live no longer
D. and closing her arms above her head, she In
stantly sank into the monsters belly. TheI
the man saw the snake coil itself round pillal
of basalt, to crush the bones of its victim, ant
to he heard the smothered shrieks of the woman
st within it. Halfinsane with terror and remorse
7" he rushed from the cave, and ever after wan
IN dered about, the wrstched being whom l saw.
ed In Honesdale, Pa, on the night Of the Sd
at fire occurred which destroyed several dwell
va ings and other buildings. The loss vas esti
mated at upwards Of $3o, 1000.