THE SOURCES OF GUM ABUNDANT. 63 



enterprising civilized races engage in the business of collecting 

 it, instead of relying on one tribe of Indians on a single river, 

 there will no longer be any solicitude on the score of supply. 



There is greater danger, in the lapse of time, of a scarcity of 

 pine trees. It is matter of history that, in the early settlement 

 of America, such fears were entertained, and laws were passed 

 in some of the colonies to prohibit the cutting down of pine 

 trees. The alarm then was, that there would not be a supply 

 of masts, turpentine, tar, &c., for the royal navy. The clearing 

 of lands for cultivation, the enormous destruction for fuel, ship 

 and building materials, make great inroads upon the pine forests ; 

 but these causes are not, and are not likely to be, in operation 

 for the extinction of the India rubber tree, with the exception 

 of one variety, that of the Gutta Percha, which it is said is cut 

 down for the purpose of obtaining its gum. Whether this waste 

 is at all necessary, or whether it will continue, is unknown to 

 the writer. 



Since it has been found that common resin, gum-shellac, and 

 coal-tar, can be vulcanized in proportions of equal parts with 

 India rubber, great as the demand must unquestionably become 

 for the fabrics made of these substances, there is no probability 

 of a scarcity of the raw materials. 



