Method of making Salt. 383 
Aragua, the juice of which is a nourishing milk, and which, from 
that circumstance, has received the name of the cow-tree. ‘he 
tree in its general aspect resembles the chrysophyllum cainito ; 
its leaves are oblong, pointed, leathery, and alternate, marked 
with lateral veins projecting downwards ; they are parallel, and 
are ten inches long. When incisions are made into the trunk, 
it discharges abundantly a glutinous milk, moderately thick, with- 
out any acridness, and exhaling an agreeable balsamic odour. 
The travellers drank considerable quantities of it without ex- 
periencing any injurious effects; its viscidity only rendering it 
rather unpleasant. The superintendant of the plantation assured 
them that the Negroes acquire flesh during the season in which 
the cow-tree yields the greatest quantity of milk. When this fluid 
is exposed to the air, perhaps in consequence of the absorption 
of the oxygen of the atinosphere, its surface becomes covered with 
membranes of a substance that appears to be of a decided animal 
nature, yellowish, thready, and of a cheesy consistence. These 
membranes, when separated from the more aqueous part of the 
fluid, are almost as elastic as caoutchouc ; but at the same time 
they are as much disposed to become putrid as gelatine. The 
natives give the name of cheese to the coagulum, which is sepa- 
rated by the contact of the air ; in the course of five or six days 
it becomes sour. The milk, kept for some time in a corked phial, 
had deposited a little coagulum, and still exhaled its balsamic 
odour. If the recent juice be mixed with cold water, the coagu- 
lum is formed in small quantity only; but the separation of the 
viscid membranes occurs when it is placed in contact with nitric 
acid. ‘This remarkable tree seems to be peculiar to the Cordil- 
liere du Littoral, especially from Barbula to the lake of Maracabo. 
There are likewise some traces of it near the village of San Ma- 
teo ; and, according to the account of M. Bredmeyer, in the val- 
ley of Caucagua, three days journey to the east of the Caraccas. 
This naturalist has likewise described the vegetable milk of the 
cow-tree as possessing an agreeable flavour and an aromatic 
odour; the natives of Caucagua call it the milk-tree. 
METHOD OF MAKING SALT IN THE GREAT LOO-CHOO ISLAND*, 
Near the sea, large level fields are rolled or beat so as to have 
ahard surface. Over this is strewn asort of sandy black earth, 
forming « coat about a quarter of an inch thick. Rakes and 
other implements are used to make it of a uniform thickness, but 
it is not pressed down. During the heat of the day, men are em- 
ployed to bring water in tubs from the sea, which is sprinkled 
over these fields by means of ashortscoop. The heat of the sun 
* Extracted from Captain Hall’s “ Account of a Voyage of Discovery ta 
the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-choo Island.” 
in 
