Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-08

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the contents of the trough into q waiting
car. About four loads fill the truck, and
then the latter glides down the tramway
to the edge of the cliff, where it is dumped
in heaps, to be afterwards shoveled down
4 canvas shute.
Negroes are stationed in the hold OF the
waiting vessel, to trim" the unssvory car
90 as it comes down; and We notice that
each one of them wears an iron mask over
his face, for the guano is more penetrating
than coal dust, steel filings or volatile salts.
Their position is by no means an enviable
one, but they receive from the captain of
the vessel only thirteen dollars for shovel
ing one hundred tons! The pungent am
moniac dust is extremely irritating to the
nostrils, throat and lungs, rendering the
shortest stay here unpleasant. Yet there
are several rather handsome residences on
the island. including two built entirely of
iron-for the occupancy Of the Peruvian
superintendent and English carpenters.
Besides the wretched Chinese and negroes,
many convicts were formerly employed
here when work was more brisk. A col
lection of filthy cane huts in which they
were quar- tered may still be seen, together
with the remnant of once busy little
town. In former times there were often
as many as one hundred vessels. mostly
English, lying off the Chinchas, all wait
ing for cargo. In the year 1888 it was
estimated that there yet remained on this
northern island alone, about 3,79S, 256 tons
(English) of guano. In the less frequented
parts, thousands of sea birds still lay their
eggs in little caves excavated in the an-
cient deposits, and all the hillocks and in
accessible crags are covered with their
nests.
The center island has always been
worked almost exclusively by the Chi
nese, ship loads of them being imported
for that purpose. So badly treated were
they by the Peruvian taskmasters, and SO
fearful was the nature of their work, that
suicides were common among them.
Little Jumps of ammoniac salts are often
found In the guano, and sometimes the
eggs of the birds are converted into that
substance.
AS everybody knows, guano mixed with
the poorest soil will make plants grow and
thrive, and for that reason it is sought by
agriculturists in all parts of the world.
The first shipment of the famous fertilizer
was made from this place in the year 1910,
and consisted of only twenty barrels. This
was taken to Liverpool and tried on farm
near that city, with such surprising results
that large orders were Immediately issued
for more, and soon it became "all the
rage" as farmers both in Europe and
America learned how wonderfully it
would increase the producing power of
their fields. The Peruvians appointed
agents for its sale in London and New
York, and as long as the business was
prosperous, good many men grew enor-
mously rich out of it. How strange it
seems that the little birds of the sea should
hvve been providing, during long series
of centuries. in these distant islands of
the Pacific, vast deposit for the removal
ton of the more populous parts of the
globe!
Of course guano can exist in considera-
BILE quantities only where rains never falls
to dissolve it. The rainless region of Peru,
the Andes and the sea, about forty miles
wide and thousand miles long, includes
many small islands besides the Chinchas,
which for ages have been the homes of
myriads of water fowl. Every passing YES
sci is surrounded by sea birds, soaring
above the masts and screaming defiance to
invaders of their resorts. That portion of
country where rain seldom or never falls is
called Ell Dospoblado, "the Uninhabited,"
because of the extreme difficulty of exist
ing there The reason for the astonishing
contrast between the fertile regions of the
Amazons, Orinoco and La Plata rivers on
the eastern sides of the Andes, and these
arid deserts on the western coast, is given
as follows: The tropical winds from the
South Atlantic are laden with moisture.
Blowing from east to west with great regu
larity, they sweep over the country drained
by the above mentioned rivers, falling in
frequent and copious rains, varying with the
season of year, but always sufficient to keep
the streams we'll filled. The streams con-
tinue up to the foot of the Andes, and along
their eastern slopes; the mountains con-
dense the moisture from the warm winds,
and up to the very crest of the dividing
ridge there is abundance of it. But by the
time the winds have crossed that mighty
dividing wall, all the water they carried
has been wrung out of them, and there is
no more to give when they reach the Pacific
slope.
This condition of dryness does not exist
to the end of the continent. Going south
ward, more and more moisture is encount-
cred until in Southern Chile and Patagonia
there is altogether too much of ii, for the
western slopes of the Andes are almost
continually drenched by heavy rains, and
their tops obscured by clouds. This con-
dition is due to the trade winds blowing
landward from the South Pacific. The
Patagonian plains east of the mountains
are comparatively dry, swept by cold
breezes from the snowy submits.
On the western coast of Peru, wherever
stream from the mountains brings down
its melted SHOWS, an oasis is opened, which
planters here utilized from time immemo-
rial. The Incas themselves were no mean
agriculturists, and wherever they touched
the earth it produced in profusion. Their
empire extended north and south 5000
miles, and east from the Pacific about 400
miles, to the vast forests of the Amazons,
which their simple tools we're unable to
subdue As far back as the conquest, en-
ergetic Jesuits made vigorous war upon
these deserts, and conquered them as easily
as they had the Indians. When irriga-
ton is possible, the barren strip produces
splendid crops of sugar, coffee and other
tropical products; and it is not impossible
that industry and capital may one day re-
deem the whole of it. Mr.. Curtiss says
truly, "If the money that has been wasted
in Peruvian revolutions had been expend-
ed in the development of their mines, and
if the soldiers had dug irrigating bitches
with as much ardor as they have fought
each other, there would be no richer coun-
try on the globe"
Nature does not assume forms more at
tractive or imposing in any other part of
the world than here, where eternal sum-
mer smiles under eternal SHOWS, and des-
erts cherries as Sahara alternate with
valleys luxuriant as those of Italy. The
ocean. too, is full of curious animal life.