60 BRITISH HONDURAS. 



hard shell with three cells, containing as many homy oily seeds. 

 These seeds yield a valuable oil, which is used locally for 

 burning, and feeding pigs, the husk being given to fowls. 



The country people extract oil from the cohune-nuts in the 

 following manner. When the nuts are what they term full, they 

 break between two stones the shell, which is very hard ; they then 

 pound the kernel for some time in a wooden mortar, and the 

 mass is put into a boiler with water, and boiled down until all 

 the oil, or fat, floats. They skim the oil off, fry it in an iron 

 pot, so as to disengage all the aqueous particles, and then bottle 

 it. By this simple process the average yield is one quart bottle 

 of oil from one hundred nuts. When in full bearing a cohune- 

 palm bears one or two, and sometimes three, bunches of fruit, 

 with an average of five hundred nuts to the bunch. 



Several attempts have been made to establish an industry 

 in connection with the extraction of oil from the cohune-nuts, 

 but so far without success. The chief difficulties appear to be 

 connected with breaking the . hard, dense shell surrounding the 

 kernels, and the small proportion which exists between the 

 latter and the general mass of the nut. When properly pre- 

 pared, however, the oil is said to be superior to that of the coco- 

 nut, and to burn twice as long that is, a pint of the former 

 is said to burn as long as a quart of the latter. Considering that 

 cohune oil is marketable in England " in any quantity at the 

 price of the finest and purest coco-nut oil," it is a matter of 

 regret that the scores of tons of cohune-nuts found wild in the 

 woods of British Honduras do not contribute anything to the 

 wealth of the colony. 



Eeturning, however, to the characteristic vegetation of a 

 cohune-ridge, after the cohune-palm the most striking objects in 

 the forest are the majestic timber-trees, whose huge stems reach 

 far out of sight, and are lost in the dense canopy of vegetation 



