GIGANTIC TREES—ELASTIC GUM. 261 
lected 14 lines in three hours; whereas at Paris 
there fall only 28 or 30 lines in as many weeks. The 
temperature is lower than at Maypures, but higher 
than on the Rio Negro; the thermometer standing at 
30° or 80°6° by day, and at 69°8° by night. 
The Indians of the mission amounted only to 160. 
Some of them were employed in the construction of 
boats, which are formed of the trunks of a species of 
laurel (Ocotea cymbarunz), hollowed by means of 
fire and the axe. These trees attain a height of 
more than a hundred feet, and have a yellow resin- 
ous wood which emits an agreeable odour. The forest 
between Javita and Pimichin affords an immense 
quantity of gigantic timber, as tall occasionally as 116 
or 117 feet; but as the trees give out branches only 
towards the summit, the travellers were disappoint- 
ed, amid so great a profusion of unknown species, 
in not being able to procure the leaves and flowers. 
Besides, as it rained incessantly so long a time, 
M. Bonpland lost the greater part of his dried spe- 
cimens. Although no pines or firs occur in these 
woods, balsams, resins, and aromatic gums, are abun- 
dantly furnished by many other trees, and are col- 
lected as objects of trade by the people of Javita. 
At the mission of San Baltasar they had seen 
the natives preparing a kind of elastic gum, which 
they said was found under ground ; and in the fo- 
rests at Javita, the old Indian who accompanied 
them showed that it was obtained by digging seve- 
ral feet deep among the roots of two particular trees, 
the Hevea of Aublet and one with pinnate leaves. 
This substance, which bears the name of dapicho, 
is white, corky, and brittle, with a laminated struc- 
ture and undulating edges; but on being roasted it 
