India Rubber and Gutta Percha. 57 
soliloquy, as is ever their habit, the different plants they 
recognised. One would have liked to know what they 
thought was the object of such work, or if any such 
thought occurred to them at all, and how, with their 
phlegmatic nature, which rarely displays interest or 
feeling, they regard the enthusiasm manifested by 
travellers at the first sight of new forms of life. 
Pacou (Pacn myletes) , a large well-known fish which 
frequents the rapids and other parts of the rivers, and is 
shot by fishermen with arrows when the waters are low 
in the dry season, was common. At the station there was 
a good deal of it salted, and some crews were away up 
the river engaged in fishing. There was some activity 
at the time in collecting locust gum, a product of the 
Locust-tree (Hymencea Conrbaril) ; and a negro crew 
passed us on this errand. The gum is found in the 
debris of the decayed trunks in compressed layers, as if it 
had been run in moulds, a few inches thick. It is clear 
and transparent like amber, and usually quite pure. 
Little is known as to how or at what time the deposit 
takes place, but it seems to occur in the early stages of 
decay. It is found also in hollow living trees, but 
never in or under sound ones. For the last couple of 
days we had passed no palm but Kokerite — Maximil- 
liana regia. On the lower part of the Essequebo river 
./Eta [Mauritia flexuosa) is very common near the 
mouth, and a short way up the Manicole (Euterpe edulis) 
abounds. Higher again Tooroo (GEnocarpus baccabd) is 
very plentiful, while here and there by the water-side 
dense clumps of Pimpler palm (Bactris palustris) occur. 
At Kalacoon I met with two species of this genus with 
H 
