Proceedixcs. 1!)24 13 



]ii'()duced which could he writtru iiixiu. This pri>hal>ly was al'tcr tlic ag'e 

 of sheepskin; slicetl jiitiis of shrnl)s and plants and other suhstances 

 which, in their day. were considered the "dernier eri" in material for the 

 art. 



Who was the man. and of what people came this ohserver.' Of the 

 (liinese ? Perhaps; for these people have been, and probably always will 

 be. better observers of natural phenomena and of Nature's handiwork 

 than we "superior" races. For mark; there was a paper maker before 

 his day. Had iieen, since Nature first evolved him from some obscure, 

 crawling' form of Primordial life. 



We, to-day, look with wondering eyes on the vast intricacies of the 

 modern paper mill. We see the great logs drawn into the gangs of saws, 

 and we follow the course of the blocks until we see the sheets of beautiful 

 snowy papei' slowly rolling u]). a hundred yards or more away fi-oni the 

 starting point. We mai'vt-l that man ever could conceive the idea of thus 

 tui-ning a hard, woody substance into the beautiful, pliable commodity 

 which, were we to now be suddenly deprived of, would stop the commerce 

 of tlie world. But the basic method was followed ages before history 

 began by a little insect which we know to-day as "Vespa." the Wasp. It 

 only remained for an observant human with a disinclination for the hard 

 work necessary in chipping or scribing hard stone, or dressing tough 

 sheepskin, to note ways of friend Vespa, to coi>y him, and to improve his 

 methods, until he produced a substance white enough, and tough and 

 smooth enough, to enable him. with the aid of a pointed stick and a little 

 coloured fruit juice, or blood, to easily set down his ideas. The rest was 

 simply a nuitter of pei'sistent endeavoi- in evolutioji. 



Years au'o, when a boj", I was fortunate enough, from a ])ei-sistent 

 habit I had of watching birds, beasts and reptiles goins' al)out their dail.v 

 housekeeping tasks, to see Vespa busy at the operation of paper making, 

 and, for the benefit of those of this Society who iierhaps have not been so 

 luck.v. I shall desci'ibe as nearly as possible the way she went about the 

 task. 



In those days, what are known as "Snake" rail fences, went zig- 

 zagging about all the fields, ilade of 12-ft. sjilit sections of the Douglas 

 Fir, these singularly unbeautiful creations were nevertheless a boon for 

 the wasp folk, for, as I watched a lady wasp buzzing about, she alighted 

 on a rail, and, after a little searching, began to chew with hei- strong 

 mandibles on a part of the soft layer of the annual ring, meanwhile wet- 

 ting the resulting mass with a j)resumably sticky exudation from her 

 mouth. After a few minutes woi-k. she had collected a round ball, the 

 size of a small pea, of perfect pulp, (I will here digress to read a bit from 

 Kirby, Assistant in the Zoological Department in the British .Museum, 

 who, in describing "^■espa," says: "These nests are composed oi a 

 material resembling thin, coai'se brown jiaper. ") 



