454 PETCH : 



or granite cropping out. In every direction where a view can be 

 obtained, the country is seen to be covered by dense exuberant 

 forest. Leaving Para, I travelled over the liigh ground for 

 several miles, until the primitive forest was reached, and then 

 went doAvn towards the gapos. Following through the wood a 

 path used by the caoutchouc collectors, we soon came to a large 

 tree in a state of decay, which had been tapped many times. At 

 first sight T felt extremely puzzled and perplexed at the appear- 

 ance it i')resented. From the ground up to a height of 10 or 12 

 feet the trunk was one swollen mass of warty protuberances and 

 knots, covered with thick scales and flakes of hard dry bark. 



This singular state of growth, the result of the practised system 

 of ta]jping, has not yet been recorded by any one, and so was to 

 me unexpected. A few- minutes of careful examination soon 

 showed the real cause of these deformities. The collector makes 

 use'of a small axe-like implement an inch broad. At each stroke 

 he cuts through the bark and into the wood for fully an inch. 

 Hundreds of these are made in the wood of each tree in the course 

 of a few years, and cannot heal under any circumstance ; but a 

 layer of wood is formed over the injm-ed part, at the expense of the 

 bark and general vitality of the tree. The newly-formed wood is 

 again cut into and splintered, and so the process is repeated on 

 each successiv^e layer until the trunk becomes merely a mass of 

 twisted wrinkled wood, ^\-ith very thin insipid bark. In this 

 condition hardly any milk flows from the cuts, and although for 

 years a few green leaves may continue to sprout from the points 

 of the twigs, yet the tree may be considered as dead, and, in fact, 

 finally withers away. It is, therefore, the injury done to the wood, 

 and not overtapping, which lessens the flow of milk, and tiltimately 

 cau.ses the death of the tree. The cuts in the wood are of coiu-se 

 unnecessary, since the milk is met with only in the bark. The 

 healing-over process, which afterwards takes place, is similar to 

 that seen where a branch has been lopped from a trunk. The 

 wood is compact and rather hard, and for this reason the tree 

 lives on for a nmnber of years, although cut and hacked every 

 season ; but the flow of milk becomes so lessened that many are 

 l>ractically abandoned for years before they die. This andseveral 

 largo adjoining trees were growing in moist deep heavy soil of a 

 f«Ttilc character, but quite out of tli«' reach of any inundation. 



On Augu.st 2 I went in .S(;urch of plants, and descended to the 

 r«'gion of the gapos. It had rained a good deal previously, and 

 the collectors' footpaths w<'re ankle deep with mud. After 

 wading several little pools we came to a deep gapo, into which the 

 tide flowed. It was connected with many lesser watiTCOurses 

 that formed a kind of network, <-.\tending over a wid(^ district 

 of forest-covered country, the more elevated parts of which 

 were raiwd only from 3 to 4 feet above the highest tides. A 

 eonhiderable number of rubber trees grew along the margins of 

 both tlie larger and .smaller streams, intermixed with cacao and 

 forest trees. Three were observed the bases of the trunks of 

 which were flooded to a height of 1 foot, yet the roots seemed 

 to ruji up <o till lirou r.i Mie bunk, and no matted rootlets were 



