Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-01-16


Singular archaeological Statement-Th
GuanO Birds Thousands of Years Older
than Man. noe .-
The Paris correspondent of the New York
Eoening Post remarks:
M. Boussingault has presented to the
Academy of Science an interesting paper on
this valuable manure, from which we learn
that deposits of guano extend from the
second to the twenty-frs degree of south
latitude along the coast of Peru. Those
which lie beyond these limits are much
poorer in ammoniacal compounds than the
former, and are, therefore, less valuable as
manure. Guano is generally found depos-
tied on small promontories or cliffs. 1t hills
up crevices and is 10 be found wherever
birds seek shelter. The rocks of this part of
the coast consist Of granite, gneiss, sienite
and porpbyric sienite. The guano which
covers them generally exists in horizontal
| layers, but sometimes the latter have strong
| inclination, as at Chipano, for instance, where
they are nearly vertical. The guano de-
posits are generally covered with an ag-
| glomeration of sand and saline substances,
| called cdLiehe, which the laborers remove
before beginning their attacks on the guano.
In some places, as at Pabelon di Plea and
| Punta Grande, the deposits lie under a
mess of sand descended from the "neighbor-
| ing mountains,D on which subject De RiVero
makes an extremely curious observation, viz:
that, at the places above mentioned, the
| lowest guano deposits are covered with a
stratum of old alluvial soil; then comes
another layer of guano, and then stratum
| of modern alluYial soil. To understand the
! importance of this fact, it must be borne in
mind that the age of modern alluvians does
not extend beyond historic times, whereas
oIdalluvians date from the period Immediately
preceding that at which man first began to
inhabit the earthi so that the guanaes, or
cormorants, and other allied birds, which
deposit guanO, must have existed thousands
of years before man, seeing that the lower
| layer of guano is some times from fifteen to
twenty yards in depth, while the old alluyial
crust above it has thickness Of upward oi
three yards. tss
Po explain the immense accumulation Of
puano in these regions M. Boussingault OBJ
serves that there has been combination
Of circumstances highly favorable to its pro-
duction and preservation; among which arr
to be reckoned dry climate, ground pre-
senting vast number of chinks assures anC
caverhs, where the birds eau rest, lay thei
eggs and hatch them, without being disturbel
| by the strong breezes from the south, and
lastly, abundance of food suited to them
| Nowhere else are fish SO abundant as on thi
coast, where whole shoals are often cas-
upon the shore, even in fine weather. An
tonic di U lloa states that anchoYies especlall
are in such abundance. here, as to defy dc
scription, and gives graphic account of tn
manner in which their numbers are dimiT
isbdd by the myriads of guanas which al
some times seen flying in countless foek
, intercepting the suns rays like clouds, an
darting into the sea to catch their pre-,
According to NJ. Boussingault's calculation
/ 100 kilogrammes lthe kllo is equal to tM
: and one-half poupds) OF guano eontain Il
c nitrogen of 600 kilogrammes of sea. fish, an
/ as the guano deposits, before they began
be worked, contained 37s, 600 600 Of metric
quintals (the glgRtal RletriQUe is cwt., 81 qri
} "a ibs., 8 oz.) of guano, the birds must he'