260 



Selections. 



[NO. 6, NEW SERIES, 



of working it. At Bombay and Surat, it is made into an inferior 

 varnish for carriages and palanquins. 



2. The ripe or true copal — a semi-fossil, doubtless the product 

 of forests overthrown by gradual decay by the upheaval of the coast 

 or by some violent agency of the elements. This is proved by the 

 fact, that pieces of the gum are met with embedded in wood, which 

 crumbles to dust under the touch, and by its " goon-skin," which 

 is the impress of sand or gravel. There are many varieties of co- 

 lour, caused probably by the embedding strata, the clearest and 

 most transparent fetches the highest price ; then follow the nume- 

 rous and almost imperceptible gradations of light amber, lemon and 

 dark yellow, red and tufas. I have seen a specimen of tender green. 

 Sometimes the gum, like Sicilian amber, contains drops of water, 

 bees, tics, flies and other insects, delicately and completely preserv- 

 ed, and disproving a remote antiquity. 



Without entering further into theory, I will simply describe two 

 visits which I made to the Copal- diggings. On the 10th May, I 

 rode out from the Town of Zanzibar upon the Mony road, One 

 mile east of the town lies a low sandy plain covered with sedgy 

 grass, and pitted with holes two or three feet deep, from which 

 copal had been dug. The place is about a mile from the shore, 

 apparently but few feet above high-watermark, and bounded land- 

 wards by a sandy nullah. Passing the palace of Mony, some one 

 hundred yards, I was shown a torrent bed, where during the rains 

 copal is said to be brought down and picked up by slaves. Thence 

 turning towards the interior we rode up the rising ground, to judge 

 by the eye, about one hundred feet above the level of the sea, for a 

 mile and a half into an estate, belonging to the prince, and called 

 Rauzah. Here were many traces of copal diggings. The soil is a 

 dark vegetable mould varying from a foot to a foot and a half in 

 depth, based upon blue clay, the raised sea beach. This clay be- 

 comes exceedingly fat and adhesive, clogging the bar the deeper it 

 is excavated ; it is mixed throughout with fibres, said by the ne- 

 groes to be roots of the Cocoanut tree half decayed, and of bright 

 red : blood colored bits of earth also variegated the faint blue co- 

 lor, and at a depth of about two feet and a half, water began to 



