FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL 



267 



GOUGING CHIPS FROM A CAMPHOR TREE 



The adz is used in reducing the camphor tree to chips, which can be placed into retorts for 

 the distillation process (see illustration on the next page). 



safe. Although a woodsman with an axe 

 never moves except in the company of 

 an armed guard, there is always danger 

 of an ambush. 



Tales of the camphor workers recall 

 the days of our pioneer fathers in the 

 times of the tomahawk, the poisoned 

 arrow, and the scalping-knife. And yet 

 if this menace had not existed, the cam- 

 phor forests would have disappeared 

 long ago. Thanks to the head-hunters, 



there are still large tracts of virgin cam- 

 phor forests in Formosa. 



Camphor trees grow best on moderate, 

 well-drained slopes, not over 4,000 feet 

 in elevation, where the sun's rays can 

 reach them. 



Nowhere else in the world have these 

 trees attained such height and girth. In 

 the past, trees with a basal circumfer- 

 ence of from 35 to 40 feet have been 

 noted, but these have inevitably fallen 



