Travel and exploration – Indian ocean interesting retained copy of a letter from a sea captain named Lamont dated 1857 who was sent to explore the Kooria Morca islands in the Indian ocean to see whether they could be a good source for guano and reporting that despite earlier reports that the island was full of it : ‘...I have been all round the island with a pick axe and shovel on my back and examined every crock and corner on the island and cannot find any caves except one and that contains about 1000 tons good guano and that the Gredenda of Liverpool is working out, every one at his own pit. Other part of guano is about the flat ground and the sides of the mountains and the depth of the guano varies from 1 foot to 4 feet at the most and mixed with small and large stones. I do not think in my own mind that there is guano sufficient to loan one hundred 6 hundred ton ships at this island and that has to be got with a great deal of labour...’ Guano, or bird droppings, was a commodity highly sought after at this time for agricultural fertilizer and other uses in the industrial revolution. It is interesting that it was such a highly prized commodity that expeditions would be mounted as far afield as the Indian Ocean in order to obtain sufficient quantities of it.