2-798-409 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Island of Ichaboe, 1844. 'It is...to its being the depository of guano, in almost incredible quantities, that Ichaboe owes its importance...The surface of this island is covered with birds' manure to the depth of twenty-five feet...The trade in Guano, which has been lately opened to the coast of Africa, has not only raised high hopes as to its beneficial effects in improving agriculture, by affording an abundance of the richest manure, but on the commerce, and especially on the shipping interests of the country, it has already occasioned considerable improvement. Everything relating to it, therefore, is a matter of importance, and even the natural history of the article is something more than a mere matter of curiosity. Its name, it would appear, is of Peruvian derivation, and had been called in the language of the natives Huano, signifying dung or manure'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol V.