358 THE UAP1C110. 



respecting the pretended fossil caoutchouc, called dapicho by 

 the Indians. The old chief Javita led us to the brink of a 

 rivulet which runs into the Tuamini ; and showed us that, 

 after digging two or three feet deep, in a marshy soil, thia 

 aubstance was found between the roots of two trees known 

 by the name of the jacio and the curvana. The first is the 

 hevea of Aublet, or siphonia of the modern botanists, known 

 to furnish the caoutchouc of commerce in Cayenne and 

 Grand Para ; the second has pinnate leaves, and its juice ia 

 milky, but very thin, and almost destitute of viscosity. The 

 dapicho appears to be the result of an extravasation of the sap 

 from the roots. This extravasation takes place more espe- 

 cially when the trees have attained a great age, and the inte- 

 rior of the trunk begins to decay. The bark and alburnum 

 crack ; and thus is effected naturally, what the art of man 

 performs for the purpose of collecting the milky juices of 

 the hevea, the castilloa, and the caoutchouc fig-tree. Aublet 

 relates, that the Galibis and the G-aripons of Cayenne begin 

 by making a deep incision at the foot of the trunk, so as to 

 penetrate into the wood ; soon after they join with this hori- 

 zontal notch others both perpendicular and oblique, reaahing 

 from the top of the trunk nearly to the roots. All thet-e 

 incisions conduct the milky juice towards one point, where 

 the vase of clay is placed, in which the caoutchouc is to be 

 deposited. We saw the Indians of Carichana operate nearly 

 in the same manner. 



If, as I suppose, the accumulation and overflowing of the 

 milk in the jacio and the ciwvana be a pathological pheno- 

 menon, it must sometimes take place at the extremity of 

 the longest roots, for we found masses of dapicho two feet 

 in diameter and four inches thick, eight feet distant from 

 the trunks. Sometimes the Indians dig in vain at the foot 

 of dead trees ; at other times the dapicho is found beneath 

 the hevea or jacio still green. The substance is white, corky, 

 fragile, and resembles by its laminated structure and undu- 

 lating edge, the Boletus ignarius. The dapicho perhaps 

 takes a long time to form ; it is probably a juice thickened! 

 by a particular disposition of the vegetable organs, diffused 

 and coagulated in a humid soil secluded from the contact of 

 light ; it is caoutchouc in a particular state, I may almost 



