Sept. 1, 1864] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



DEVELOPMENT OP COLONIAL RESOURCES. 71 



quantity of balsam. He had three donksys loaded with it, each carry- 

 ing four arrobas, or 100 lbs. weight. The quantities of the drug I saw 

 on its way for exportation at Las Mercedes, Plato, and on the road from 

 the Montana, must have amounted to at least 1,500 lbs., which proves 

 that the tree must be very plentifully scattered through the forest. 



I returned to Mompox in a canoe, and arrived there on the 29th 

 ult. On the 4th of the present month I left Mompox by the steamer 

 up the river, and landed here on the 7th. This place is called Bar- 

 ranca Vermeija, and is situated on the river side, about two leagues 

 further up than the place where the village of Bojorques formerly 

 stood, for it is not now in existence, the river having carried all the 

 houses away. This being the nearest point to Bojorques I could land 

 at, I came here hoping to find Smilax officinalis, H.B.K., but after several 

 days' unsuccessful searching for it, I am afraid I must conclude it is 

 not here ; but I will go to Bojorques in another day or two, and perhaps 

 I may find it there. 



The Rhatany, I was told at Barranquilla, came from the neighbour- 

 hood of Bucaramanga, and as I intend to go up the river Sogamoza to 

 that place when I leave Bojorques, I hope to be able to procure speci- 

 mens of the plant that produces it there. 



Barranca Vermeija, on the River Magdalena, New Granada, 

 January 13th, 1864. 



DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIAL KESOURCES.— SAWING 

 MACHINERY. 



Perhaps there are few countries in the world so well provided with 

 timber suited to the purposes of man as New South Wales, and certainly 

 nowhere until within a very recent period was so little effort made to 

 turn natural capabilities to account. Three or four years since almost all 

 the window sashes, doors, flooring, and other carpenters' and joiners' work 

 used in the colony were imported, as well as most of the ordinary arti- 

 cles of furniture and cabinet-maker's goods. Now, on the contrary, owing 

 to colonial enterprise and ingenuity, almost every article of this kind is 

 made in Sydney, and at a much lower price than it can be imported 

 for. Two years since, the market was glutted with imported doors, 

 sashes, and furniture, since then no articles of the former description, and 

 very few of the latter have been introduced ; and owing to the adapta- 

 tion of machinery to cabinet-making and carpentry, there does not now 

 exist the slightest chance of the revival of such an anomalous state of 

 things, as a colony producing the finest timber in the world, importing in- 

 ferior articles manufactured from inferior timber, from a country thousands 



