Chap. III. TRADE. 209 



mocks. The total value of the produce annually ex- 

 ported from Ega, I calculated at from seven to eight 

 thousand pounds sterling. Most of the articles are 

 collected in the forest by the Ega people, who take 

 their families and live in the woods for months at a 

 time, during the proper seasons. Some of the produc- 

 tions, such as salsaparilla and balsam of copauba, have 

 been long ago exhausted in the neighbourhood of towns, 

 at least near the banks of the rivers, the only parts that 

 have yet been explored, and are now got only by more 

 adventurous traders during long voyages up the branch 

 streams. The search for India-rubber has commenced 

 but very lately ; the tree appears to grow plentifully 

 on some of the rivers, but only an insignificant fraction 

 of the immense forest has yet been examined. Grass 

 hammocks are manufactured by the wild tribes, and 

 purchased of them in considerable quantities by the 

 salsaparilla collectors. They are knitted with simple 

 rods, except the larger kinds, which are woven in 

 clumsy wooden looms. The fibre of which they are 

 made is not grass, but the young leaflets of certain kinds 

 of palm trees (Astiyocaryum). These are split, and the 

 strips twisted into two or three-strand cord, by rolling 

 them with the fingers on the naked thigh. Salt-fish 

 and mishira are prepared by the half-breeds and civilized 

 Indians, who establish fishing stations (feitorias) on 

 the great sandbanks laid bare by the retreating waters, 

 in places where fish, turtle, and manatee abound, and 

 spend the whole of the dry season in this occupa- 

 tion. Turtle oil is made from the eggs of the large 

 river turtle, and is one of the principal produc- 



VOL. II. P 



