the solid excrement of carnivorous sea-birds, which is found in immense quantity on the coasts of South America, and in other tropical countries, as South Africa. The analysis of this very powerful manure, its varieties, adulterations, market prices, agricultural application, &c., are fully detailed under Agricultural Chemistry, vol. ii., p. 408-11; see also Agriculture, vol. ii., p. 299.

Huano, is the Peruvian term for manure. This substance, though brought to Europe for the first time in 1840, has been employed in agriculture by the Peruvians Guarans from the age of the Incas downwards. The chief sources of supply at present are the Chinca islands, off the coast of Lower Peru, and the Lobos islands, opposite to Lambayeque in Upper Peru. Chinca, the chief of the group bearing that name, has been estimated to contain the enormous quantity of seventeen millions of tons; and that of the remainder of the group is given at twenty to twenty-five millions. The supply on the Lobos islands, though not so extensive, is yet very large. There are also other islands and places on the coast that afford considerable supplies of guano; so that upon the whole, for all practical purposes, the supply may be considered as inexhaustible.

So ignorant were the governments of Peru and Bolivia of the value of this article, that they sold to private parties the sole right to ship guano for the term of nine years for the trifling sum of £10,000; but soon perceiving the ruinous nature of the contract, the Peruvian government cancelled it two years afterwards (in 1841), on the ground of enormous public lesion, and ignorance of the value of the privilege conceded. This had the effect of opening up the trade for a time; but the monopoly system was revived in the course of a year or two by the Peruvian government, whose agents (Messrs Gibbs & Sons, of London) are now the sole importers in this country, though of late much has been sent direct from Peru to Spain. The exorbitant price demanded for this manure has occasioned much complaint; and it is to be hoped that some measures may be devised for reducing the price to a fair commercial rate. (M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary.)

The total quantity of guano imported in 1854 amounted to 235,111 tons; against 123,168 tons in 1853; 129,889 tons in 1852; 243,014 tons in 1851; and 116,925 tons in 1850. Of the above 235,111 tons, 221,747 tons came from Peru; 3187 from British South Africa; 1502 from the United States; 4249 from Chili.