263 



canal would not be six thousand toises long. I 

 traced the shortest way by means of the com- 

 pass, and some marks were made in the oldest 

 trees of the forest. The ground is perfectly 

 level ; and for five leagues round there is not the 

 smallest hill. In the present state of things, the 

 portage should be facilitated by improving the 

 road; by giving it the proper direction, by draw- 

 ing the canoes on carriages, and by throwing 

 bridges over the -rivulets, which sometimes stop 

 the Indians for whole days. 



In this forest we at length obtained precise in- 

 formation respecting the pretended fossil caout- 

 chouc, called dapicho by the Indians. The old 

 captain Javita led us to the brink of a rivuleb 

 which runs into the Tuamini ; and showed us, 

 that, after digging two or three feet- deep, in a 

 marshy soil, this substance was found between 

 the roots of two trees known by the name of the 

 jacio, and the curvana. The first is the hevea 

 of Aublet, or siphonia of the modern botanists, 

 known to furnish the caoutchouc of commerce 

 in Cayenne and the Grand Para ; the second has 

 pinnate leaves, and it's juice is milky, but very 

 thin, and almost destitute of viscosity. The 

 dapicho appears to be the result of an extravasa- 

 tion of the sap from the roots. This extravasa- 

 tion takes place more especially when the trees 

 have attained a great age, and the interior of 

 the trunk begins to decay, The bark and al~ 



