The Monmouth inquirer., 1925-05-28
BRINGS COLD WATER
TO TROPICAL COAST
Hunboldt's Current Causes
Climatic Paradoxes.

Washington. - The Humboldt, or
Peruvian, current which has bathed
the tropical desert coast of Peru with
icy waters and so has given rise to
numerous climatic paradoxes, Is re-
ported to be changing its course,
working havoc to animal life. A
steamer captain recently passing up
the coast reports that he encountered
thousands of dead birds and fish In
the sea. other reports state that re
gions rainless for years are having
rains and that rivers have formed al
most over night in the one-time
parched desert.
A bulletin from the Washington
headquarters of the National Gep-
graphic society quotes a communica-
ton to the society from R. E. Cocker
telling how Peru's cold current has
shaped conditions along the coast.
1.-THE Humboldt current, supple
mented no doubt by the upturning of
cold bottom waters, maintains its
steady course for thousands of miles,
from icy Antarctic ATTITUDES to. the
equator" says the bulletin "Thus 1t
is that tropical shores are bathed by
cold ocean waters, and, with this
fundamental contrast, the stage is set
for an array of phenomena not fully
paralleled In any other part of the
world.
Cold Current Prevents Rain.
"Only two events in that interesting
series command our present attention
These are the absence Of rainfall and
the consequent accumulation, through
centuries untold, Of mine of wealth
which might have been dissipated BY
a few seasons of rain.
'Guano, 1t will be understood, is
primarily the deposit of fish-eatine
birds, into which may be mixed and
incorporated-in greater or less pro
portion-a variety Of other sub
stances, such as the eggs and bodies
OF birds and the deposits and the
bodies Of sealions. 1t may be found
mixed with gravel and sand in very
small proportion or sometimes to an
extent rendering it Improbable to
extract.
".Peruvian guano' is practically
synonymous with heterogeneous guanO
and has long been recognized as the
best heterogeneous fertilizer-that is, as
a fertilizer Of generally high nitrogen
value In which the nitrogen com
pounds are found in condition most
readily assimilable by our plants.
consequently, a peculiar interest
attaches to birds of the Peruvian is
lands, which have long served to aid
the worlds agriculture They are the
numerous sea-fowl Of the coast. which
find their abundant food in the ocean
and make their nests upon the islands
or points of shore.
Acres of Fish.
'The peculiar climatic conditions
previously mentioned offer merely the
proper environmental conditions fol
the preservation of the product. The
primary requisite for abundant bird
life is the existence of plentiful food
supply, and this Is found in the
schools Of small fish, called ancho
betas, that swarm in the Peruvian cur
rent. There shoals of fish, acres ir
extent, are often pursued in the wa
ter by bonitoes and other large fish
while beset from the air by thousands
of birds.
billions of pounds of fish must be
consumed each year by the birds, be
sides the incalculable quantity de-
voured by other fishes; but The fecund
ity Of the anchobetas is such that
their numbers are still maintained. Al
times great areas of the sea are made
red by myriads of small, brightly
colored shrimplike crustacea; and
these, too, play part of Importance
as food for the fishes aud birds.
mot all of the birds are of equal
Importance from the commercial point
Of view Indeed, three species vir-
tualiy support the guano industry at
the present time-the white-breast
cormorant (guanay,, the big gray peli-
can, and the whitehead gannet."