METAL WORK, LEATHER, AND BARK 129 
Joaquim, on the Takutu River, the commandant reported that the 
Indians from the upper Rio Branco had brought him specimens of 
silver at different times (ScG, 255). 
87. Among the contributions transmitted from British Guiana to 
the London International Exhibition of 1862 was a series of barks 
used in tanning, collected by W. C. McClintock, Pomeroon River. 
About 35 of these, with their Creole and native names, are mentioned, 
together with an explanatory note that these barks are all used in 
tanning by the Indians [Arawak and Carib], but the amount of tan- 
nin contained in them is very various, and some of them contain but 
a very small quantity (CC, 27). In view, however, of the fact that, 
except in the case of drums, coverlids of some of the quivers, and cer- 
tain obsolete Orinoco fighting shields made from manati hide (G, 1, 
289), native Indian leather work is conspicuous by its absence, I 
can only conclude that the statement that all the above-mentioned 
barks were utilized by the Indians must be an error. 
88. Not having had opportunities of observing or learning the 
methods of preparing the bark in the manufacture of laps (sec. 547), 
masked dresses and shirts (sec. 539), mats (sec. 401), dusters (sec. 
275), ete., it would be useless to do more than mention the existence 
of such a material here. Penard speaks of laps made from the 
pounded bast of the Manbarakrak (Lecythis ollaria) among the 
Carib (PEN, 1, 95). Bark strips, without being apparently sub- 
jected to any preliminary treatment, are utilized as binding ropes, 
basket straps, and as the basis for certain circular hanging trays 
(sec. 411). 
