130 PALMS. 



purposes. Consisting of a mixture of solid (stearine) and fluid 

 {elain) fat, it congeals at a temperature of 72°; but both its 

 component substances acquire additional value after having 

 been separated by means of the hydraulic press ; for while the 

 liquid part furnishes an excellent lamp-oil, the solid fat is 

 manufactured into candles rivalling wax, and at the same time 

 not much dearer than tallow. 



This important product first became known in the European 

 markets at the beginning of the present century, and is now a 

 considerable article of commerce, which has drawn the attention 

 of speculators even to the remotest islands of the tropical ocean. 

 Thus Mr, Darwin mentions an Englishman of the name of 

 Hare, who, with a number of Malays, had settled on the un- 

 inhabited Keeling Islands for the purpose of collecting the 

 produce of their cocoa-nut groves; and Skogman (Circum- 

 navigation of the Swedish frigate *' Eugenie ") tells us of a 

 steam oil-mill, erected by a Mr. Brodin on Foa, one of the 

 Tonga Islands. 



The Kingsmill group, Puynipet, the loftiest and most beauti- 

 ful of the Carolinas, and many other Polynesian atolls, have, in 

 a similar manner, been drawn within the vortex of commerce ; 

 and in 1835 the Society Islands furnished 170 tons of cocoa-nut 

 oil, worth about 1 3,000 dollars. 



But the whole produce of the Pacific is utterly insignificant 

 when compared to the vast export of Ceylon, which in 1857 

 amounted to no less than 1,767,413 gallons, valued at 212,184^. 

 Beckoning forty nuts to a gallon, and taking into account that 

 at least as much oil is consumed in the island as is sent out 

 of it, no less than 140 millions of nuts were necessary for pro- 

 ducing this enormous supply.* 



It may easily be imagined that the crushing of the fruit for 

 the expression of the oil gives employment to a great number 

 of people, and constitutes a flourishing branch of trade. For 

 this purpose the natives generally erect their creaking mills 

 under the shade of the palm groves near their houses. These 

 primitive engines consist of the trunk of a tree hollowed 



• I find stated in the ''Economist" that during the first eight months of 1861 

 188,053 cwts. of cocoa-nut oil were imported into Great Britain, worth 50/. per 

 ton ; so that the annual importation probably amounts to no less than 600,000/. 

 During the same period the importations of African palm-oil amounted to 347,486 

 cwts. 



I 



