710 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN. 



about 20 litres (4f gal.) and made of rough cork, with wooden 

 hoops, an osier handle and a round piece of wood for its base ; 

 at the same time he scrapes off the barras, which falls on to a 

 cloth spread below the tree to receive it. Then the resin is 

 conveyed to reservoirs (barcous), formed of half -casks let into 

 the ground alongside the forest roads, with removable, sloping 

 wooden covers, which keep out the rain and impurities. The 

 barras is either mixed with the crude resin in the barcous, or 

 packed separately in palm-leaf baskets, imported for the 

 purpose from Algiers or Egypt. From the reservoirs the resin 

 is ladled into casks, and carried to the factories in carts with 

 very broad wheels, on account of the sandy nature of the 

 roads. It is, however, proposed to improve transport of both 

 resin and timber in the Forest of La Teste, by constructing a 

 tramway to Arcachon, about 12 miles distant. 



2. Implements used. 



Various implements are used for cutting grooves, removing 

 the crust of resin from the trees and conveying the produce to 

 the factories. 



An ordinary axe is used for trimming the bark before the 

 grooves are cut. 



A curved axe (abschot), with a short handle (Fig. 373), is 

 used for cutting and freshening the surface of the groove. 

 The blade should be sharp as that of a razor, so that the resin- 

 ducts may be cut cleanly. Its irregular shape renders it an 

 instrument difficult to construct and use ; it can be used skil- 

 fully only after long practice, and experience in India shows 

 that better work can be done there with an ordinary adze. 



The scraper (pelle) (Fig. 374) is made of iron, topped with 

 steel ; it is fixed to the end of a wooden handle a yard long. 

 It is used for scraping the lower portion of the grooves, and 

 under the old method, for digging holes in the sand and 

 removing the resin from them. 



Another scraper (barrasqiiitc) (Fig. 375) has a curved, sharp 

 blade with a handle 1J metres (4 feet 10 inches) long. It is 

 used for removing bark which cannot be reached by the axe 

 and also for collecting the barras from the same places. 



