AXB THE ECONOMIC PKODUCTS OF THE ATTALEA PALMS. 35 



durable. It twists firmly into cordage, from the fibres being rough-edged ; 

 and as it is very abundant, and is procured manufactured by the Indians, 

 ropes made of it are much, cheaper than any other kind of cordage. The 

 standard length which all the cables are made to is 60 fathoms. Before 

 the independence of Brazil, the Portuguese Government had a factory at 

 the mouth of the Padaviri, one of the tributaries of the Rio Negro, for the 

 purpose of making these cables, for the use of the Para arsenal, and as a 

 Government monopoly. 



The cordage manufactured of the fibre is extremely light, and floats 

 upon water, and is more durable in the navigation of rivers than ropes 

 of hemp. It is extensively used in the Brazilian navy, and large quantities 

 are exported to Para and many of the West Indian islands. 



Until within the last ten years, the fibre was all manufactured into 

 cordage on the spot ; but it is now taken down, in long conical bundles, for 

 exportation, from Para to England. That from Bahia comes in bundles of 

 10 to 141b. each. It is cut by men, women, and children, from the upper 

 part of the younger trees, so as to secure the freshest fibres ; the taller trees, 

 which have only the old and half-rotten portion within reach, being left 

 untouched. The trees are much infested by venomous snakes, a species of 

 Craspedocephalus ; and the Indians, when at work, are not unfrequently 

 bitten by them, sometimes with fatal consequences. 



Mr Spence has published the following additional information, partly 

 extending and correcting, partly confirming, what Wallace had previously 

 written : — 



" The ascertained distribution of the Piassaba palm is from the 

 river Padaviri (a large tributary of the Rio Negro, entering on the left 

 bank) on the south, to the cataracts of the Orinoco on the north ; and from 

 near the Japura on the west, to the sources of the Pacimoni on the east. 

 Its place of growth is in low sandy flats, where the water stands to a slight 

 depth in rainy weather, but it avoids the swamps and the gap6s in which 

 the Mauritias and Euterpes delight. It is mostly found far away from the 

 banks of the rivers, and I have seen but a single plant in such a locality — 

 namely, just within the lower mouth of the Casiquiari on the right bank, 

 on a barranca beyond the reach of floods. This was a lioble specimen — 

 perhaps over forty feet high. My friend Wallace had been wrongly 

 informed of the partiality of the Piassaba for black waters, as it grows 

 more abundantly than anywhere else in the forests of the Casiquiari, and 

 especially from the mouth of Lake Vasiva upwards, where the waters of 

 the river are much whiter than below ; but as I have nowhere seen it on 

 ground inundated by the rivers, it is plain that the colour of their waters 

 cannot influence its existence. Near two Indian villages on this part of 

 the Casiquiari, where I penetrated deep into the forest, I came on larp 

 groves of Piassaba. Nothing that I have seen in Amazonian forests dwr> 

 more strongly and pleasantly on my memory than my walk among th . e 

 strange bearded columns, from whose apex sprang the green interla j;g 

 arches which shaded me overhead. The ground was dry — herb; /us 



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