1841.] Report on the Island of Chedooba. 353 



seemed to me more like a varnish ; it speedily forms a highly polished 

 surface on wood work, and has a fine aromatic scent, not unlike that of 

 cedar ; mixed with reeds and dried, it makes a brilliant and fragrant torch. 

 The colour of the wood is a dull pink. 



In the course of clearing these summits for observations connected with 

 the survey, many other trees were felled exhibiting characters apparently 

 valuable as timber. Among the natives there were differences of opinion 

 about their names, and waiving even this obstacle to any description of 

 them, the remark already made of the difficulty opposed to their being 

 brought down, renders such attempt unnecessary. The oil trees would 

 be found most valuable as a source of supply for that material, and per- 

 haps many of their neighbours also would be found more useful living 

 than dead, by the produce they may be found to yield One of these, of 

 large size, and with a bark similar to cork, was found to produce caout- 

 chouc in great abundance. On cutting through the outer rough coat, a 

 soft inner one, nearly an inch thick, is found closely attached to the more 

 solid wood; on wounding this, the caoutchouc exudes freely, of a consis- 

 tency and colour like thick milk. The tree was much avoided by the 

 natives on account of the noxious quality of this milk, which if by accident 

 entering the eye, on the tree being struck, so as to wound it, was said to 

 produce certain blindness. 



Another tree of very large leaf but moderate size, was also much avoided, 

 and great care taken in felling it, to prevent its juice from touching the 

 skin, which it w T as said to blister and poison. The adhesive quality of 

 this substance was therefore more taken for granted than proved. 



A plant, with the appearance of a cactus, but growing to the height and 

 size of a tree, and known perhaps generally under the name of Sisso 

 (not the timber tree of that name) yielded the caoutchouc in the greatest 

 abundance. On severing a leaf, it ran forth in a small stream like milk. 

 Many of the creepers also contained it in large qualities, and in one spot 

 of the jungle of the Krae-rone Circle, I found the Caoutchouc tree of 

 South America, affording prospect that as European intelligence and 

 enterprize became more attracted towards the products of India, that 

 continent may some day find its exclusive trade in this every day in- 

 creasingly valuable article, formidably disputed. The wild cotton tree 

 grows to a great size, and at the time seen was covered with a mass of 

 its beautiful crimson flowers and flocks of birds. Its wool is sometimes 

 used for stuffing pillows or beds. 



The Gamboge tree was found of large size, and in considerable quantity, 

 in clearing the jungle from the summit of the N. W. Peak j it was well 



