THE CHAULMOOGRA THEE AND RELATED SPECIES. 21 



carefully washed, after which they are dried in the sun for one or 

 two days, then shelled by coolie women, sorted, and placed between 

 corrugated rollers worked by a hand crank, where they are crushed. 

 They are then placed to a thickness of about an inch in jute bags 

 about a foot square. Five layers of eight bags each are pressed at 

 one time. A steel plate is placed above each layer and the whole 

 submitted to hydraulic pressure. The cold-drawn oil is collected in 

 tin cans and filtered through ordinary blotting paper. The resulting 

 press cake, still rich in oil, contains 6 per cent of nitrogen and is 

 sold as manure to tea planters and to paddy-field owners. Mr. 

 Sen complained of the difficulty of obtaining Tarahtogenos hurzii 

 seeds. He said that often he had to advance money two years ahead 

 to the jungle people in order to obtain an adequate supply of seeds 

 to keep his concern going. 



Tarahtogenos hurzii is apparently very common in the Chittagong 

 hill tracts and according to the forest office of Chittagong occurs in 

 the Kassalong forest reserve. This reserve is reached in the follow- 

 ing manner: A steam launch plies once a week between Chittagong 

 and Eangamati on the Karnaphuli River, a journey of three days; 

 from Rangamati a dugout canoe has to be employed as far as Maini- 

 mukh, a journey of about 7 to 10 days to the edge of the Kassalong 

 reserve. The trees occur throughout the hill tracts, but in isolated 

 circumscribed areas. It is from this region, infested with tigers, 

 panthers, leopards, and wild elephants, that most of the chaulmoogra 

 seeds come to the Indian markets and to dealers in chaulmoogra oil. 

 Owing to lack of time and to threatened railroad strikes, the writer 

 was unable to explore the Kassalong forests. As in any case it would 

 have been too early in the year (February, 1921), the fruiting season 

 being in July and August, the trip was abandoned. 



It may be of interest to state that certain fish of the Kassalong 

 River, similar to those of the Khodan stream, feed on the seeds of 

 Tarahtogenos hurzii and when killed and eaten produce the same 

 effect as would a large dose of chaulmoogra oil. The species of fish 

 which is especially fond of chaulmoogra seed is said to be the mirgha- 

 mahal (C'irrhina mrigala), and they are on that account absolutely 

 avoided. In Assam the natives made a similar statement to the 

 writer, but it involved a different species of fish, living in the Dibru 

 River. 



Other locations given for Tarahtogenos hurzii by the Agricultural 

 Ledger of India are: Tippera, South Sylhet, and the Lushai Hills in 

 eastern Bengal and Assam; also Arakan Yomas, near Kan, at about 

 3,000 feet elevation, Mandalay, Pyinmana, Tharawadi, Hanthawadi, 

 Shwegyin, Pegu, Amherst, and the Mergni Archipelago in Burma. 



