OF LA P ROUSE. 36 I 



After dinner^ our hoft carried ns in his canoe 

 to the diflance of a kilometer to the eaftward. 



We there faw a man employed in extracting 

 fago from a palm. This tree, which was a demi- 

 raeter in thicknefs, had been recently felled; it 

 was already open part of its length, which, in 

 the whole, did not exceed twelve meters, and a 

 great deal of fago had been before extracted 

 from it. As this fpecies of palm, like the other 

 trees of the fame family, preferves nearly an 

 equal diameter throughout, it furnilhes alrnoft 

 -as much fago in the upper part of its trunk as 

 near its root. (A very exact reprefentation of a 

 young iago-tFee may be feen in PLite XL U. Fig. 

 a.) Its trunk is formed externally of a very 

 hard ligneous fubftance, which is not more than 

 a centimeter in thicknefs. It is a large cylinder 

 filled with a pith, which is croflcd throughout 

 the whole length of the' trunk with ligneous 

 fibres, about a third of a millimeter in iize, and 

 often fpread a demi-centimeter from each other. 



The fago. is. pounded after it has been taken 

 from the tree ; it is then put into bags made of a 

 fort of canvai's, which the petioles of the cocoa- 

 palm leaves furniih near their bafe. On thele 

 bags there is repeatedly thrown forae very clear 

 water, which carries through the fubflance ot the 

 pith, while this fort of lieve partly retains its 

 ligneous fibres. 



The 



