The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1903-05-28

of steep ladder, which leads to a
wooden platform built high up on a
perpendicular cliff. The northern is
land, which is about 400 yards long
bv 600 wards wide, is still covered with
excrement. though not to any great
depth. The beds have been worked
downward, the material being removed
in layers and placed III flat trucks: then
conveyed by tramway to the edge OF
the cliff, whence it is run down in
chutes into barges waiting below, and
transferred by the latter to vessels
winch lie off the islands The principal
cutting is about one hundred yards
from the brink of the precipice, and is
fully eighty feet deep, showing the
great amount of labor that has been
accomplished y small steam engine
of twelve horse power is used in digging
out the guano, and also for loading the
trucks A crane projects from the en-
CINE. and from its chains is suspended
an iron trough, like a huge coal-hod,
with six gigantic teeth at the edges.
BY working one chain, this hod is made
to fill itself, digging deep into the ex-
crement: then 10y connecting another
chain, the crane slowly turns, grooming
and creakiEg as though afflicted with
chronic lumbago, and finally dumps the
contents OF the trough into waiting
car About foul trough-l 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 canvas
chute Negroes are stationed in tie
hold of the waiting vessels, 20 trim
and We notice that each of them wears
an iron mask over his face, for the
gllano is more penetrating than coal
dust, steel filings, OF volatile salts.
Their position is by no means an envi-
able one, but they receive from the
captain of the vessel only thirteen dol
lars for shoveling one hundred tons.
The pungent ammoniac dust is ex-
tremely irritating to the nostris, throat
and lungs, rendering the shortest stay
here unpleasant. Yet there are several
rather handsome residences on the is
land, including two built entirely of
iron-for the occupancy OF the Peru
Wan superintendent and English car
penters. Besides the wretched Chinese
and negroes, many convicts were for
merly employed here when work was
more brisk. A collection of filthy cane
huts in which they were sheltered may
still be seen, together with the rem
nant of once brighter little town. In
former times there were often as many
as one hundred vessels, mostly English,
living off the Chinchas, all waiting for
cargo.
The village of Psco, in the broad and
fertile plain of Canate, is a fair speci-
men of the coast towns of Peru. Its
charming little plaza is surrounded by
pretentious casas Of adobe, whose outer
walls are tinted sky-blue, rose-pink,
yellow, purple or gray.
The smaller dwellings of the poorer
classes, who are principally negroes and
half -breeds, are one-room novels of the
simplest construction. There are whole
streets where the houses on both sides
are built of wild cane stuck upright in
the ground, having cross-pieces tied on
at intervals, without nail from top to
bottom, this wicker-work foundation
being plastered with mud and rooted
with straw.
Though generally windowless, and
often fioorless, these poor abodes, being
well whitewashed inside and out, pre-
sent neat and cheerful appearance;
and over each doorway a glass lamp is
hung, rendering the streets better light
ed than those of many more pretentious
cities. One side of the plaza is occupied
by very large and handsome church,
whose towers are a conspicuous land
mark for vessels far out at sea.
Near by is the old chapel of the Jesuit
fathers, which possesses, among other
interesting wrecks of departed glory, a
high altar, most deliberately carved and
and heavily gilded. An avenue OF willow
trees leads to the dilapidated Frances
can monastery, which was suppressed
nearly half century ago by order of
the so-called "Liberal'' government.
For many years its cloisters have been
deserted, its halls empty and it's plea
sure grounds, with their long lines of
olive trees, allowed to run wild with
weeds and thistles. The records tell us
that this ancient garden was intended