FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL 



271 



victims to the woodsman's axe. Perhaps 

 in the uncharted forests, where the savage 

 still holds sway, more of these noble 

 specimens still grow unscathed. At 

 present a camphor tree with a basal cir- 

 cumference of 20 feet is considered a 

 very ample specimen. 



A SINGLE TREK PRODUCES $5,000 WORTH 

 OF CAMPHOR 



In point of view of value, few trees 

 can rival the camphor. An average tree, 

 say with a basal circumference of 12 feet, 

 will yield about 50 piculs of camphor 

 (approximately 6,65o pounds), which, at 

 the present market price, is worth about 

 $5,000. 



Strictly speaking, there are no cam- 

 phor forests, as the camphor laurel is 

 only one of a number of trees growing 

 together. The camphor trees are un- 

 usually beautiful, with shapely trunks 

 and wide-spreading branches profusely 

 covered with graceful leaves of a soft 

 green. 



Native stills are scattered here and 

 there throughout the districts where 

 crude camphor is collected, packed in 

 tins, and carried down precipitous moun- 

 tain paths on coolies' backs to the near- 

 est railway line, whence it goes to the 

 refinery at Taihoku. 



It was my good fortune to visit one of 

 these native stills in the district about ten 

 miles beyond Urai, the first savage vil- 

 lage with a police garrison to the south 

 of Taihoku. 



We motored as far as Sintian, and 

 from there the stronger members of the 

 party "hiked," while the rest alternately 

 walked and rode in sedan chairs. 



We had to cross many streams and we 

 always found a Chinese ferryman with a 

 sampan awaiting us on the bank, for our 

 route had been kindly prearranged by the 

 Japanese official from whom we obtained 

 permission to enter the savage zone. 

 There seemed to be no fixed fare, and the 

 sampan owner accepted, as a matter of 

 course, the few coins we tossed him on 

 alighting. 



AN ENCOUNTER WITH A "BROTHER" 

 FORMOSAN 



The ferryman at the last stream we 

 crossed was an old "ripe'' savage, with a 



face seared and seamy. A veritable 

 Charon he looked, and this resemblance 

 was heightened by a dark-colored shawl 

 thrown over his head, for the poor fellow 

 suffered from ague. 



He regarded us with much solemnity, 

 and I for one was trying to fathom his 

 thoughts, when quite unexpectedly he 

 spoke, "You and I are brothers. We are 

 not like these," and he indicated the few 

 Japanese and Chinese passengers at the 

 rear of the sampan. 



I was somewhat surprised, but found 

 that all the Formosan savages have this 

 idea. Besides themselves the world con- 

 tains for them but two groups, the Chi- 

 nese and the Japanese ; so when they meet 

 persons belonging to neither of these, by 

 a process of elimination they claim them 

 as relations. 



At Urai we stopped for luncheon at a 

 Japanese inn, and the entire savage popu- 

 lation turned out to watch us eat. It hap- 

 pened that we had some caviar sand- 

 wiches in our lunch baskets, and when 

 we had finished eating, as I had one left 

 I gave it to an old savage chief. He ate 

 it with great relish, and when he was 

 through he signified his desire for more. 

 Then I gave him a plain bread-and-butter 

 sandwich, and his disgust was amusing 

 to behold. 



Whenever I hear of savages assimilat- 

 ing most eagerly the evils rather than the 

 more substantial benefits of civilization, 

 I think in particular of this born epicure. 

 I am sure he would have preferred cham- 

 pagne to beer at first draught. 



THE SIMPLICITY OE THE CAMPHOR STILL 



The still we visited was operated by 

 the members of one Chinese family. 

 When our party approached, some of the 

 men were gouging chips from the trunks 

 of camphor trees with adzes, while others 

 were in the still feeding the fires. 



Adjoining the still was a shanty, where 

 the workers lived, and in front of the 

 door was a woman preparing the after- 

 noon meal, while beside her a little boy 

 was busy playing blocks with chips from 

 which the camphor had been extracted. 



The stills are operated in a very simple 

 manner. Camphor chips are placed in a 

 chip retort over boiling water, and as the 

 camphor vaporizes it passes through 



