y 



] 



DR. F. WELWITSCH ON THE GUM COPAL IN ANGOLA. 301 



Now this was pointed out to me by the two Copal-gatherers aa 

 the Copal-yielding tree. I tried hard to discover some resin on 

 any one of them, but without success. My companions were not 

 in the least concerned or confused, but assured me that the 

 exuded Copal was washed off by the heavy rainfalls and, after 

 sinking into the soil, ripened there and came to perfection ; so I 

 had to regret that, in this instance also, my researches led only 

 I to a negative result. . Several subsequent attempts that I made 



in the districts of Benguella and Mossamedes yielded the same 

 negative result. At one time I was inclined to believe that the 

 tree which yielded the large quantity of Copal found was either 

 very scarce or probably no longer existed. 



After the foregoing remarks I may perhaps assume with some 

 certainty that the West African Copal, and probably all gum 

 resm exported under this name from Tropical Africa, may be 

 looked upon as a fossil resin produced by trees which, in periods 

 ong since past, adorned the forests of that continent, but which 

 at present are either totally extinct or exist only in a dwarfed 

 posterity. As evidence in support of my views I should point, in 

 the first place, to the petrified crust on tke surface of this Copal; 

 next, to its admitted occurrence in the earth, often at a consider- 

 able depth ; and lastly, to its great resemblance to amber. Be- 

 sides this positive evidence, I may also be permitted to establish 

 my views inductively in a negative manner. If we consider the 

 large quantity of Copal gathered in Angola and all along the coast 

 of Tropical West Africa, we are led naturally to the concluyiou 

 that the trees yielding it could not be scarce if still in existence, 

 but ought to be abundant and widely distributed, and that the 

 Copal resin produced by them must be enormous and could not 

 "Well escape observation ; and yet, favoured by circumstances as I 

 was during several years of residence in and travel through most 

 of the districts of Angola, I could not find out even a single living 

 tree with resin similar to Gum Copal : I am therefore confirmed in 

 my opinion that the tree in question must be either very scarce or, 

 what is more probable, is extinct, and that West African Copal is 

 really a fossil resin. That of these Copal-yielding trees (which 

 certainly at one time must have been growing in large numbers in 

 and near the widely extended region where Copal is so abundantly 

 found at present) only a few fragmentary remains of bark should 

 nave hitherto been discovered is the less surprising, if we take 

 into consideration that Tropical Africa, the home of this Copal, is 

 at the present moment the least-explored continent, and^ further, 



