Wilmington daily gazette., 1872-08-29
Tho Origin Of cuano.

y,on". ,.'lty years ago the great trnyolIar
uuhlo"ldt y, reported that the Peruyians ns..J =,
.,,, W "S. S."u,cuIal operations "a remarkable
,r,''.,,g o'.Hcu guahn, which had fertiljzinu
p.oi'''."S ui an extraordinary character IIe |
examined the locality where the matt.r ,.., |
,';', :u'", aha pronounced il the dung of snn |
pii''S Willch made the,r breeding and r,n.,;'.
places there. At the Cbjncha I.l,mL" ~,
,,,he ,nu',u the deposits To he over sixty fee, in
.,s .,.., H.ss' al", observing how thin "A deposit
W"N ",a"e every year. he calculated that II
must nave taken many thousands NJ vo,r. ,.' ~ =.
furnish The whole mass As no rain r.iis IN
ing iSiards the excrements cannot wash awav
a "tai absence OF rain wa, therefore ncces.
sary to llumbollt's theory. "'o''
~ Is remarkable how one after another the
y, n'.uc on s explAnat,ons Of our great men come
u - oe set aside For years no one disputed
hamboldt's iea--it was So plausible: and
YET the great time required to establish th,,
wh"'e deposit was always a stumbling block
t" weak minds. But at length it was dis.
covered that guanO existed on the islands all
aiohg tne rachc coast. in many OF which
there Was no great abundance OF ssa birds
and ON some Of which, a. in those OR tue
coast OF Lower California, rain often fell
heavily. Thus lIumboldts theory OF the
sources 0f gI'am was fairly open to doubt
The RESULT has been that the Chincha Is.
land del nSlts have been examined by scientific
| men. While there is no doubt about some uf
|
ex:rements Of birds, the lower, and indeed
comparatively the whole, is found to be- a
geological formation. That which owes It's
origin u o'rds Is. Of course, one thick mass
without order or arrangement but the lower
ana larger portion is stratitied, or in horizon
| tai layers, like rock In II sandstone quarry
anu, of course, required the action of water
to give it that form
IL has now been asc,'rtained that there ex-
lSttd along the Pacific slope small organisms
winch were neither animal nor vegetable, bu
which a learned German author calls ''prO
tist;c," and which, dying, formed theS.
layers at the bottom of the waters The br,
OF the facfic is undergoing gradual, an'
often In the case of the volcanic islands
pretty rapid upheaval, and thus the beds 0
phosphate guanO are formed by the throwin,
up above the level Of the water the beds @
dead prot'st4 which existed hundreds o
This places the origin Of guanO in NOR
comprehrndable light. What We call tn
ammonated guanOs are, in all probability
the excrements and remains Of animals
wli.e the phosphate guanos are OF marin
origin, and veiy different substance.
Travellers, even so acute as Humboldt, ar
often deceived by the reports or the languag
of the strange people among whom they ex
plore, and in this case Humboldt pr0babl
mistOok the derivation Of the word 'guan0.
1t does not. az is generally supposed, mea
Q bird manure, but any kind Of fertilizer.
is properly written in the PuruvaE langual
"whnanno," and is derived from the Vel
so-arsU. Whatever makos plant, grow
suanO. 1t see ns to have sheen in use for
. very long period by the inhxhitants Of dl
A tricts in which it Is found. DR.. Edward
Q OF the New York Lyceum Of Natural Ilstor
has given the subject Of guano history mu,
2 study and hnds it Is referred to in an o
l. Peruvian book published two hundred yea
= ago-Post