264 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



A CAMPHOR TREE 



The camphor trees are unusually beautiful, with shapely trunks 

 and wide-spreading branches profusely covered with graceful 

 leaves of a soft green. According to an article appearing recently 

 in a semi-official publication of Formosa, the camphor produced 

 in the island at the present time is obtained entirely from natural- 

 grown camphor trees, the supply of which, it is anticipated, will 

 be exhausted within ten years. Eor more than a decade, however, 

 the camphor monopoly bureau has been planting camphor trees 

 at the rate of more than 3.000 acres a year. In 1919 its program 

 was expanded to more than 12,000 acres, and this will be the 

 annual acreage planted in future. 



regaled by a thousand conglomerate 

 Chinese odors — Chinese joss-sticks and 

 Chinese fire-crackers. Chinese clothes 

 and Chinese food, Chinese shops and 

 Chinese houses, Chinese men and Chinese 

 women. Then of a sudden comes this 

 flower mart. 



The handkerchief drops to the lap and 

 the owner of the sensitive nose "sits up 



and takes notice." Are 

 these white waxen bios-, 

 soms really the gardenias 

 we were wont to revere 

 on account of their ex- 

 pensiveness ? Let us try 

 to imagine the qualms of 

 some Fifth Avenue flor- 

 ist if he could but see 

 so many potential bou- 

 tonnieres, at a dollar 

 apiece, so carelessly 

 heaped up in baskets, lin- 

 ing the dingy pavement. 



SEARCHING FOR SMUG- 

 GLERS 



However, it is to the 

 waterfront of the Tam- 

 sui River, commonly 

 called the Bund, that we 

 must go if we wish to 

 see the most picturesque 

 part of Daitotei. Here 

 it is that junks, with 

 great eyes painted on 

 the sides of the bow, 

 bring cargoes from the 

 ports of Tamsui and 

 Kelung. Their antique 

 sails, patched and re- 

 patched, speed the oars- 

 men when sailing down- 

 stream with the wind, 

 but against both wind 

 and the tide the prog- 

 ress of these clumsy 

 craft is slow indeed. 



The customs jetty is 

 the scene of the most 

 animated discussions, for 

 the customs officials are' 

 very thorough in their 

 search for smuggled 

 goods, and the junk- 

 owners, many of whom 

 bring wares from the 

 China coast, are just as eager to as- 

 sert their innocence. More often the 

 barter is merely in local products, such 

 as charcoal from some hillside kiln a few 

 miles upstream, or sweet potatoes, which 

 with the soaring price of rice are a chief 

 staple of diet among the poor. 



A junk's crew has no regular meal 

 hours. At almost any time, while the 



