ince that time they had been left to run about the decks,
producing a good deal of dirt, and some confusion. These shoats Bob now
caught, and dropped into the bay, knowing that their instinct would
induce them to swim for the nearest land. All this turned out as was
expected, and the pigs were soon seen on the island, snuffing around on
the rocks, and trying to root. A small quantity of the excrement of
these animals still lay on the deck, where it had been placed when the
launch was cleaned for service, no one thinking at such a moment of
cleaning the decks. It had been washed by the sea that came aboard quite
across the deck, but still formed a pile, and most of it was preserved.
This manure Mark was about to put in a half-barrel, in order to carry it
ashore, for the purpose of converting it into soil, when Bob suddenly
put an end to what he was about, by telling him that he knew where a
manure worth two of that was to be found. An explanation was asked and
given. Bob, who had been several voyages on the western coast of
America, told Mark that the Peruvians and Chilians made great use of the
dung of aquatic birds, as a manure, and which they found on the rocks
that lined their coast. Now two or three rocks lay near the reef, that
were covered with this deposit, the birds still hovering about them, and
he proposed to take the dingui, and go in quest of a little of that
fertilizing manure. A very little, he said, would suffice, the Spaniards
using it in small quantities, but applying it at different stages in the
growth of the plant. It is scarcely necessary to say that Bob had fallen
on a knowledge of the use of the article which is now so extensively
known under the name of guano, in the course of his wanderings, and was
enabled to communicate the fact to his companion. Mark knew that Betts
was a man of severe truth, and he was so much the more disposed to
listen to his suggestion. While our young mate was getting the boat
ready, therefore, Bob collected his tools, provided himself with a
bucket, passed the half-barrel, into which Mark had thrown the
sweepings of the decks, into the dingui, and descended himself and took
the sculls. The two then proceeded to Bob's rock, where, amid the
screams of a thousand sea-birds, the honest fellow filled his bucket
with as good guano as was ever found on the coast of Peru.

While the boat was at the rock, Mark saw that the pigs had run round to
the western end of the island, snuf