Omaha daily bee., 1898-08-21

material taken from the beds Is made up
also of dead seals, who crawl upon the
guano rocks to die. There are thousands
of sealskins mixed with the bird manure,
and not long ago 500 tons Of such skins
were excavated from one guano deposit.
The birds which make the guano are Of
many kinds. One of the chief species Is
the pelican. l have seen these ungainly,
big billed birds in such focks that they
fairly darkened the face of the ocean as
they flew over it. They feed upon the
fishes, and wherever you see a flock Of
pelicans you may be sure there is school
of fish near by. The bills of the pelicans
have great bags of yellow skin under them
and they use these as nets to scoop up the
fish. They are the gluttons Of the sea and
air, and often gorge themselves to such an
| extent that they cannot rise from the
water, but reamin there until sufficient of
their food has digested to tighten their
weight. About the Lobos islands there are
always millions of pelicans. The waters
are black with them, and as you near the
islands you see them by the thousands
seated on the rocks. They seem to be So
ciable creatures and they hunt in focks.
/ They are but little afraid of man, and as
you near the islands they seldom move
without you go right among them. The
guano Of the Lobos islands is found in
pockets covered with layers Of sand which
often vary in thickness from two to fifteen
| feet. The sand is shoveled of and the
guano is then taken out AS 1t is dug into
| a strong smell of ammonia rises, and the
men generally wear iron masks over their
faces to keep the ammonia dust out OF
their mouths, noses and lungs. The stuff
is good deal like fine sand and it is very
penetrating. The guano is first loaded on
| trucks and carried on a tramway to the
Shore where it is transferred to the ships,
| to be taken to Europe or America. ! am
told that ship load of guano does not smell
| at all badly after a fsT days. The am
monia Of the upper crust passes off and you
cannot notice the filthiness Of the cargo
| without going down into the hold.
| Claim for Hundreds of Millions.
When Humboldt visited South America In
| 1904 he called attention to the value Of the
guano beds on the Chincha islands They
were then sixty feet deep and he said there
was enough manure on them to enrich the
worn out lands Of the old world. The de-
posits, however, were not thought to be OF
value by the Peruvians until nearly half a
century later, when Frenchman named
! Cochet called attention to them and claimed
one-third OF all the product by right Of dis
covery. He Travelled from place to place and
picked out islands from which 1t is said that
more than 1900 ,OO0. 900 worth Of guano was
sold. He was declared by the Peruvian con
gress as the true discoverer of the beds
| and uses of guano and in 1S49 grant OF
5000 tons Of guano was voted him. He never
| got it, however. and, although his claim by
| right of discovery, which, according to their
Peruvian law gave the dscoverer one third
aggregated over s400, 900, 900, he died in a
poor house in Paris. Another discoverer OF
some Of the guano islands was treated In
| the same way by the Peruvian government
| This was a naturalized American citizen
| named Landreau. He discovered guano de-
posits which were worth about s400. 900 00(
| and, according to the Peruvian law should
have had s133, 900 900 from them 1t was, II
Is said, through his discoveries that Peru
| was able to get a loan OF Europe of $780,
600, ,000 but when it came to the question
| Of paying Landreau he was cut of without q
cent. Just before the war between Chill and
Peru a number of Americans had formed
what was called the Peruvian com
pany They had bought up the
| rights OF the heirs OF Cochet ant
Laudreau and were attempting to make the
Peruvian government pay back something
of the enormous sums claimed by them "a
heirs. OF Cochet and Landreau. II is from
the prospectus Of this company. which was