“It’s the name of a famous horse back where I came from,” Yozef groused.
Even Yozef had to admit Carnigan was right. Seabiscuit was probably the mellowest horse on the island, making him just within Yozef’s ability to ride. The first few trips from the house to and from the abbey or village were major adventures, and only later did he ride Seabiscuit to venture farther afield during his wanderings west of Abersford.
Inland, he discovered the charm and mystery of a multitude of small valleys, dales, ravines with widely varying terrain, rock formations, and flora. It was farther along the coast where he stumbled on the resources for his next enterprise.
Two sixdays after the Harvest Festival, Yozef extended his wanderings along the beaches and cliffs beyond his cove and came upon what he ended up calling Birdshit Bay. In retrospect, it wasn’t a bay at all, maybe an inlet or a fiord, except the enclosing hills were lower than his vision of a real fiord. Whatever it was called, a mile-long finger of water intruded from the coast inland. Rocky cliffs framed the quarter-mile-wide and deep central channel, and at the mouth of the inlet and out to sea sat rock formations up to a hundred yards across. At first glance, the flat surfaces of the cliff tops and offshore formations appeared chalk-like. Only after closer examination did he realize the whitish rock was guano. A cursory survey suggested that twenty- to forty-foot-deep solidified guano covered the offshore formations, while those on the cliff tops were up to eight feet thick.
The source of the guano was no mystery; the rocks and the skies teemed with a menagerie of flying creatures, birds from Earth and Anyarian murvors. The murvors appeared to be birds from a distance, but up close, they had more reptilian-like heads and longer, thinner feathers. Both features indicated a separate evolutionary history to the same niches as Earth’s birds.
Wherever they evolved, the flying creatures seem to get along with one another. Obviously, they all contributed to the guano, but most of the deposits must be from the murvors, assuming he was right that birds and humans had arrived on Anyar about the same time, only a few thousand years ago.
Yozef walked the length of the inlet along the cliff tops until he reached the end, swarms of flying creatures swirling around him the whole length, while he thought of fertilizer. Guano contained all of the major nutrients for plants—nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. Christ! There must be enough guano in this one spot to supply most of the entire island’s fertilizer needs for decades, if not longer. He wondered whether the islanders already used it for their crops. He’d have to check when he got back. If they didn’t, maybe this was his next project.
A second use for the guano occurred to him only when he was in sight of his house and a stray thought included the Narthani. Gunpowder! The main ingredient was potassium nitrate. It was usually sourced from mineral deposits but could be isolated from excrement, such as manure piles and guano. Yes, he remembered. Potassium nitrate could be extracted from bird guano by a series of filtering and precipitations, but bat guano was a better source. The South in the U.S. Civil War used guano from bat caves as a major resource in making gunpowder.
He didn’t know whether the Caedelli made their own powder or imported it, but if these Narthani were a big enough threat, more sources of gunpowder might be important. He’d need to check about both fertilizer and gunpowder.
His inquiries confirmed that guano deposits were common to the coasts of Caedellium, but its use as fertilizer was unknown.
Not really a surprise, mused Yozef. With so much fertile land and the island relatively underpopulated, there was no pressure to increase yields over what they already produced.
As for the farmers using guano to fertilize, the obvious question was “Why would the Caedellium farmers care if they could increase their crop yields?” The Narthani embargo of trade resulted in the island’s farmers producing more than there were markets for.
But this won’t last, Yozef figured. Eventually, trade would start again, and increased yields from fertilizer would pay off. It wouldn’t be of any use right away, but fertilizer was a good long-term investment, even if years from now. He’d also need to investigate whether there was a market for gunpowder.
To pursue fertilizer production, he needed an action plan. First was to find out how to buy or lease the land from the current owner. Then, hire workers to mine enough guano to test, and find farmers willing to find out how much of this fertilizer to apply, how many times to apply, and when in the growing season to apply it. Increased yields might not tempt farmers to cooperate, so he might have to pay farmers for the use of their land and aid in the experiments. Depending on the cooperation of the farmers, he might also need to hire someone to manage the tests, both to keep accurate records and to make sure the farmers didn’t do anything to invalidate the outcomes.
Filtin Fuller confirmed Yozef’s supposition that inquiries into property ownership of land needed to be through the clan’s registrar system. However, the relevant records and changes in ownership had to come at the district registrar’s office in Clengoth, the district seat fifteen miles east. Not having his aged Volkswagen Rabbit at hand, Yozef’s next problem was getting to Clengoth and back. Although his horsemanship had improved, he didn’t see himself riding Seabiscuit thirty miles.
There being no formal transportation systems on Caedellium, that left Yozef walking or finding a wagon heading his way and willing to take passengers. He didn’t mind the idea of a good hike, but not in both directions.
The solution came in the form of an abbey wagon taking a patient to Clengoth. A man visiting Abersford had broken his leg. Brother Alber was returning the man home by wagon, with the patient’s horse tied behind. The man, being moderately prosperous in whatever was his trade, was paying the abbey for both his treatment and the ride home and was displeased when informed it would be a working wagon and not a carriage. He was also disgruntled to learn his paid-for transportation included sharing the ride with other passengers. His complaint to the abbot was futile, and he endured the trip alternately sullen and wincing at the harder bounces. However, the abbey provided him with a straw mattress to lie on, whereas Yozef and the other five passengers sat on burlap bags containing something round and not quite hard. It turned out that two of the passengers had the same destination as Yozef—one man was going to register a major land transaction involving a disputed inheritance, and the other was the part-time local agent of the registrar himself and carried a satchel of papers of everyday matters to copy at the district’s main registrar’s office. The other passengers were a woman visiting family and a young man who told Yozef he traveled to Hewell Province to a scholasticum well-known for apothecary training.
The trip to Clengoth took two and a half hours. After leaving the low hills around Abersford, they rode into the central valley of the Keelan Province and passed farms separated by scattered groves of trees. It was the longest trip Yozef had made since waking on Anyar. He would have enjoyed the experience and the views more, if he hadn’t had to constantly maintain a semblance of balance while jostling on his assigned bag. Once at Clengoth, he followed the two men with registrar business to the office, then roamed the town for an hour until he figured the others had finished.
Clengoth was large enough to be considered a town. He estimated three thousand citizens, compared to Abersford’s nine hundred or so. What Clengoth also had was a significant business district with far more variety and a number of shops. Mixed in with smaller shops were a few with up to twenty-five workers, enough to be considered small factories.