290 DR. F. AVELWITSCn ON TUE OUiM COPAL IN ANGOLA. 



inland. Trusting to the reports of others, and to my own expe- 

 rience, I believe that I may assert that the geographical distribu- 

 tion of the Adansonia digitata circumscribes in West Tropical 

 Africa, and particularly in Angola, the limits within which Gum 

 Copal is found at present or will be found in future. In those 

 districts of Angola, rising more than 3500 feet above the level of 

 the sea, and in which the Adansonia is rarely met with, and 

 generally not at all, it appears that no Copal is found ; nay, even 

 at the height of 2500 feet it is seldom found, and only in very 

 few places. 



Of all the districts constituting the province of Angola, the 

 lands in the interior belonging to the government of Benguella 

 yield the most. They extend south of the Cuanza river, along 

 the western ridge of the mountain-terrace of Amboin, Selles, and 

 Mucobale. The quantities of this resin exported from Ben- 

 guella amounted from 1850 to 1860 to 30,000 arrobas — Le. 

 1,600,000 lb. per annum*. 



I have been circumstantial in defining the region where the 

 Gum Copal of Angola is mostly found, and in giving a general 

 description of its vegetation ; for it is obvious that it mast 

 be in this region where we must search for and find the trees 

 which furnish the Gum Copal, and which, according to most of 

 the published reports, are growing there even now in large num- 

 bers. This is a question to which I shall return after having 

 given some details with regard to the occurrence and the way 

 and manner of gathering this resin. It is a general and widely 

 spread opinion that the Gum Copal in Angola is gathered from 

 trees ; but this, according to my own observation, is obviously 

 erroneous ; for the Gum Copal is either dug out of the loose 

 strata of sand, marl, or clay, or else it is found in isolated pieces 

 washed out and brought to the surface of the soil by heavy rain- 

 falls, earth-falls, or gales ; and such pieces, where found, induce the 

 negroes to dig for larger quantities in the adjacent spots. This 

 ^^gg^iig after larger quantities is, as may be supposed, often very 

 successful ; but sometimes it is less satisfactory, or totally without 

 result, just in the same manner as with people digging for gold. 

 At times numerous larger and smaller pieces of Copal are fouud 

 close to the surface of the sand, or within the depth of a few feet, | 



whilst in other places, after digging to the depth of five to eight 

 or even ten or more feet, only single pieces, or sometimes none 

 at all, are brought to light. As soon as a negro has discovered ; 



* T. A. de Souza, in Almau. de Cambr. 1858, page 234. * 



