b 



BALSAM-BOG. 75 



on the mainland, and '4es Gomniiers" continued burning for some 

 days. The new colonists afterwards made a better use of these 2:reat 

 hillocks of vegetable resin, as fuel in cooking their provisions. 



The nineteenth chapter of this interesting voyage is devoted to the 

 "Natural History of the Islands;" and the very first object noticed, 

 and described with remarkable accuracy for one who makes no preten- 

 sions to a scientific acquaintance with the works of Nature, is this 

 plant. "The productions of the soil," he says, "are amongst the first 

 objects which attract a physical traveller on landing on the lies Ma- 

 louines [the "French name for the Falklandsj. There are, on the heights. 



massy green lumps, or hummocks, sometimes rising three feet and 

 more above the soil. I studied attentively one of these hillocks, and 

 I observed tliat there exuded a resinous gum, at first white tvhen it is 

 soft, but amber-coloured when dry. I collected several grains, and 

 found them to yield an odour at least as strong and as aromatic as that 

 of incense; but, at the time, I could not determine the precise relation- 

 ship this exudation bore to other known resins or mms. I broudit 



O^'"*""' * ^*-^^ 



away with me about the weight of a *demi-gTos' in drops, some of the 

 size of a round j^a, otliers as large as a kidney-bean; and on my re- 

 , turn to the ship I exposed some on the point of a knife to the flame of 

 a candle. The substance blazed like a fine resin, exhaling an agreeable 

 odour, and depositing a black oil, which was not inflammable, and 

 which, when cold, became hard and brittle. I tried in vain to dis- 

 solve this oil in water, and was hence led to consider that it would 

 make an excellent varnish, 'M. Frontgousse, surgeon of the * Sphinx,* 

 having collected some of this gum, imagined from the odour and from 

 the taste that it was gum ammoniac; and on coijiparing the two, we 

 found the same taste and the same smell, and the same residuum on 

 burning. The odour is so permanent on the fingers, that during the 

 whole of that and the following day I could not remove it, though I 

 washed my hands repeatedly, and even with salt-water. In spirits-of- 

 wine this gum-resin dissolves only partially, and tinges the spirit with 

 the colour of amber: what remains becomes spongy, and burns as be- 

 fore it was dissolved : the third residuum does not dissolve in water ; 

 aquafortis has no eff'ect upon it. 



" These hummocks are formed by one single plaui, which throws out 

 light spongy stems, whose lower foliage gradually decays, like that of 

 a Palm, The leaf is cut into three segments (accurately represented 



