264 



THE MAHOGANY-TREE. 



Parties, or gangs, are formed, consisting of fifty men, with 

 a captain, or hunter, attached to each. The business of the 

 hunter is to search out the mahogany-trees fit for cutting. To 

 do this, he makes his way through the thick forest to the 

 highest ground in the neighbourhood he can find, and then 

 climbs one of the tallest trees. From thence he surveys the 



surrounding country 

 in search of the foli- 

 age, which presents 

 a yellow, reddish 

 hue, assumed by the 

 mahogany - tree at 

 that season of the 

 year — about August. 

 Having thus dis- 

 covered a spot on 

 which a number of 

 the sought-for trees 

 grow, he descends, 

 and as rapidly as 

 possible leads his 

 party to it, lest any 

 others on the search 

 should be before 

 them. Huts are now 

 b^t, roofed with long grass, or the branches of the thatch- 

 palm. His furniture consists of a hammock swung between 

 two posts, and a couple of stones on which his kettle is sup- 

 ported. Stages, on which the axemen stand, are erected 

 round the trees, which are cut down about ten or twelve feet 

 from the ground. The trunk is considered most vahiable, on 



FLOWERS AND FOLIAGE OF THE MAHOGANY- TREE. 



