PELICAN. 55s 



Peruvian leather water bottles *. It is ufual for thefe to bring food 

 to any wounded or fick companion ; hence the natives take the 

 advantage of confining one of them near the fhore, by which means 

 they procure a difh offljlj without the trouble of catching it. 



The 



* By the Peruvian leather bottle is perhaps meant that made of the elafiic re- 

 fin, or caoutchouc, commonly known by the name of India rubber. This is pro- 

 duced from the juice of the fyringe-tret of Cayenne, and other parts of South Ame- 

 rica : it hardens by cold, foftens to a great degree by heat, and is wonder- 

 fully elaftic. It is faid to be made thus : — The juice of the tree is obtained by 

 incifion ; it is then fpread over pieces of clay, formed into the defired lhape, and, 

 as faft as one layer is dry another is added, till the bottle be of the proper thick- 

 cefs : the whole is then held over a ftrong fmoke of 'vegetables on fire, whereby 

 it hardens into the texture and appearance of leather, and before the finifhing, 

 while yet foft, is capable of having any impreffion made on the outfide, which 

 remains ever after: when the whole is done, the infide mould 'is picked out*. — 

 The ufe of the above, as a containing veffel, is no doubt not of very recent date r 

 being related, as a thing commonly known, in the Hi/lory of California above- 

 mentioned f. I remember myfelf to have feen, more than thirty years fince, a 

 fmaller one of thefe bottles, (hewn to me as a curiofity. — As to the ufe of this 

 fubftance for deftroying the marks of the black-lead pencil, it is probably of no 

 long Handing ; the firft we remember of it was about the year 1771 or 1772, 

 when fquare portions, fomewhat above half an inch in diameter, were fold in 

 fmall boxes for the Iaft-named purpofe, of which [ purchafed one at that time, to 

 my great fathfaftion. — As to the plant which produces this ufeful matter, we are 

 not clear to what genus it belongs : Aublet, in his Hifioire des Plantes de la Guiane % v 

 defcribes the tree, the fruit, and manner of collecting the juice, but never faw 

 the flower : he calls it Hevea Guianenfis. LinnrSus (che fon) in his Supplement am 

 Plantarum, names it Jatropha elaftica § ; but confeiTes that he only gives it this 

 aame from the flru&ure of the fruit, having moil refemblance to that genus ; his 



* For. Med. Review, 1779, P 4 I2 9> w ' ! ' 1 a chemical analyfis of the fubftance, 

 -j; Firft publiflied in Sfani/b, 1757, J P. 871, § P. 42Z. 



J-7 



