Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-08-20
~ mn ouANo IsLANps.

! uut of the ocean, IhtN nave Hut q
blade Of grass nor any green thlng on
thcm. ana are mornly rocky Islands
| covered with ragged white deposit.
! IL never rains upon them. md FOR
] ibnurarda of years the manure upon
| han and lay and grew In quantity
| frafn nra To age. For some reason or
other. The poiicana. sea WuilH and other
birds which feed by the millions Ion IN,
waters N these parts Of The world have
chosen thnan Islands AZ ih'r nightly
| fnosilng PLACES. They pick out certnln
% tham AID age after age, year after
| vanr. and nirhi after nirhb thsy ny
| 10 them ~ the ihuurnnd7 and there
rtet. Thor are often other Stands near
| which 10 an appearance are quite M
| desirable. but which arr untouched.
Even the disturbance caused hy the rp-
moving of the guano docs nos seem 10
| prevent the birds returning 90 their
! roost. on the Chncha Islands. which
/ we're supposed 60 ho entirely exhausted.
| fresh deposits ~ guanl have recently
| been made. ana In is1i $4,000 tons %
l.ow ruano was actually shipped.
WHERE THE GuANO COMES FROM
Nehry every one knows that rinno IL
the excrtmeut NJ birds. sra gull
which IL one ~ tho smallest N the
! ruano- producing hlrda viii drop from
| four to six ounces ~ oNcrcmrnt n day
| and In the hr'rdlng season of ton weeks
| about twenty.clght pounds. other
birds produce morc.ind the many lltlc
deposits throughout the ages have made
| these vast quantities. Guano hnr.
| however. other things mixed with H.
| The material taken from the beds u
! made up also uf dead seals, who crawl
upon the gunno rocks TO dio. There
are Thousands N sHulskinl mixed with
| the bird manure and not long nEn 600
| tons Of such skins were cxcaNntcd from
| one gunun depOait The birds which
make the runnn are ~ many kinds
| ono u the chief species " the pelican
have rcon those ungniniy. bis billed
birds IN such no,kH that they fairly
dafkcncd the face ~ the ocean nH they
Jew over o. They feed upon The
| fishes, and wherever you see a flock W
! peilcana you may b. sure there j. %
school ~ nah near by. The bus vi ih'
| pelicauH have great bags Of yellow skin
uudrf thHm and they use those nH nets
| Co. SCOOP M the nHh. They nrn th"
| rluttons OF the sea and air, ana often
| gorge N mHcivcs 10 such an extent
that they cannot rise from the water
! hut remain thrre until sufficient uf
| choir food has digcHcd 20 llghtcn their
! wclrht About tho Lohoa islanlf
thsft are always millions Of pcllcaua
Tho gnttr are back with N no, ana or
you near the Islands you SEQ thom hy
| the Thousands seated on tho rockH
They seem 20 be- aocly5le creatures and
they hunt In flockH. They are but Ntuc
AFR % ~ man. and a. you near the
| Islands they seldom move without you
60 flnht among them. The guano of
| the L.obon Islands ~ found IN pockets
| covered with layers of sand which of
| ten vary Ia thickness from two 20 ilf-
tcen feet. The sand i1 ahoyulcd on
and the gunnn iH then taken out. ~
/ Il IL dug Into strong smell N ammonia
| rises. and the men generally wear iron
| masks over their faces 60 Keen the
ammoniac dust out OF their mguihi.
/ noses ana lungs The stun IL good deal
/ like fine sand and Il II vury penetrating,
rho gunuo iH nrrt loaded on trucks and
| cattl,d ON q tfamwny 60 the shore,
| whore 10 la transferred % the ships. TO
| be- taken % Europe or America. 4 am
told that fhiplond % guano does not
smell nt nl badly after fcw days. The
| ammonia ~ the upper crust passes IN
| nc you cannot notice the hlthlnoas Of
TIC cargo without Rolng down Into tho
hold,
AN AMERICAN CLAIM FOR HUN
pREps OF MILLIONS.
when Humboldt visited South Amer
| lea. In isui. he called attention 30 the
value Of the guano beds ON the Chlncha
/ Islands. They were then sixty feet
deep. and he said thcro was enough
manure on them 10 enrich the worn out
lands OF the old world. The deposits
| however. were not thought 90 be OF
value by the PcruvlanH until nearly
half a century later. when a French
man named Cnthet called attention TO
thom aud claimed ono-thlrd of all the
product by right ~ discovery lie trav--
| oiod from place 20 place and picked out
Islands from which u II said that more
than 81, 200. 900 900 worth Of gunnO was
sold. lie was declared by the Peruvian
congress az the true dlacovcrer " the
beds aud uses ~ gunno. ana In 1879 a
grant or 5000 tons " gunno was voted
him. lie never got Il, however and,
although his claim by right OF diaeoV-
cry, which. according 20 their Peruvian
law, gave the dlscnNerer one-thlrd, as
gferatlng over 100000 00l, he died In a
poor house Ia Paris Another discover
or NJ some OF the guan1 Islands was
| treated In the same way hy the Pctn-
vlnn government This wuH q natural
lied American citizen named l.indreau'
| lie discovered guann deposits which
were worth about 500, 600 600, and, ac-
| c0rdlng 10 the Peruvian law should
have had si33 900 from them, II
was. II IL said. through his discoveries
that Peru was able 90 get loan or
| Europe OF two hundred Wlllnn unlifH,
hut when u came 10 the question ~
PAYING inndroau he was cut on with
out cent Just before the war be-
| tween Chile and Peru a number of
| Americans had formed what was called
| tho Peruvian company. They hnd
bought up the rights of the heirs NJ
| Cochet and Landreau and were at
tempting to make the Peruvian govern
mcnt pay back something OF the enor.
nous sum claimed by them as heirs OF
Cochct and Landrcau. II N from the
prospectus ~ this company, which was
glvon me before leaving the United
States by Col. Dick Thompson, our
former secretary OF the navy. that the
above statements are taken, This pros
pectuH was not intended a. be given 10
the newspapers, and the extent OF the
scheme has. | think, never been pub
llshcd. Its advocates brought the mat
ter before Congress, Secretaries ~
state Fish and Evarts both made re-
ports upon 70, and President Hayes In
one case called the attention ~ Con-
greas TO a.. II never made any head
way out here. ana Il II now, | suppose,
dead. for the guanu Islands were given
over 10 the Peruvian Corporation, an
English syndicate, years ago rs pnrt
confederation ~ ne assuming the Peru
Wan foreign debt Peru n practically a
bankrupt country, but when the claim
was made 10 was rich, and the claimants
expected 10 get al least larpe part or
the half billion dollars "a which they
said they were entitled under the law.
THE GuANO BEDS OF TODAY.
Guann Is not worth So much today aa
II was years ago, The product II now