Government do aught to excite ant anticipation which must end
in disappointment.

I propose to examine, not the personal testimony upon which the
existence of this island is founded, nor even to show the value of
the guano said to be found there, if those who are interested in it
really give a true sample of it—for this would show it to be infe-
rior to Peruvian guano—but to prove, from indisputable chemico-
agricultural facts, and from known meteorological and physical
laws, the enunciation, that if the island does exist, and if it is covered
with guano, then this guano cannot be equal to the Peru-
vian BROUGHT FROM THE CHINCHA ISLANDS, AND CANNOT BE A
SUBSTITUTE FOR IT.

Let us just state the qualities upon which Peruvian Guano bases
its superior efficiency to all others hitherto known—take a view of
its composition, and the nature of that which gives it its confessed
superiority, show the causes of its peculiarity, and see how far
the same state of things can exist in the location where this new
island is said to exist. All these things being duly considered and
ascertained, it will be seen that no guano equal to the Peruvian can
exist 1500 miles from the western coast of South America.

First. Peruvian Guano owes its superior efficiency to all other
guanos, to the large quantity of ammonia which it is capable of
affording by the decomposition of its organic matter. This is now
an established axiom in chemistry and in agriculture. It is com-
posed of the excrements of birds containing a large amount of urea,
uric acid, and other compounds capable of furnishing ammonia.
These different compounds readily decompose when exposed to
heat and moisture, produce ammonia, which from its volatile
nature, at once passes into the atmosphere—is carried wherever
the winds bear it, until brought down by dews or rain. The rea-
son why this decomposition has not taken place in the Peruvian
Guano is that on the western coast of South America no rain falls;
the deposits made by birds, therefore, lose the water which they
naturally contain, by evaporation, and are retained for ages in the
condition in which they are exhibited to us in the shape of Peruvian
Guano. Now let us state the reasons why no rain falls on these
islands, and if the same state of things does not exist in relation to
that now being sought by the United States, unless natural laws
are reversed or suspended, then rain must fall on it; if it does
fall, the guano must suffer decomposition, and consequently be
greatly depreciated, and not to be compared to the Peruvian—be-
coming, indeed, a phosphatic guano, such as the Mexican, or at
most only equal to that from the Lobos Islands, which now will
not pay for its transportation around the Cape of Good Hope or
around Cape Horn.

Rain is the condensation of vapor in the air, by means of cold
and from electric causes. The trade winds coming from the coast

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