340 
ON THE CAMPHOR -TREE OF SUMATRA. 
However, the results are frequently fallacious, and they often use- 
lessly cut down trees which produce but very little. 
Collection of the Camphor. — The process of collecting the oil 
and camphor from Dryobalanops camphora, was witnessed by Dr. 
Junghuhn, near Loemoet (Tapanuli,) in Sumatra, at an elevation 
of 300 feet. The greatest quantity of camphor, in a solid as well 
as in a young and liquid state, is brought from a height of 1000 
feet. The solid camphor is obtained by cutting down the trees, 
in the inner part of which fissures are found between the woody fi- 
bres, which extend longitudinally, and are filled with camphor. The 
young trees do not contain that substance, while the thickest and 
oldest, that are most filled with it, rarely contain more than two 
ounces. The natives who are occupied in collecting the precious 
product, go in a number of twenty or thirty men into those parts 
of the woods where the camphor-tree is most often found. They 
commence constructing cottages, intending to encamp upon the 
spot for some months. One-half of the company is occupied with 
severing the trunk near the root, and not, as many others have 
said, at from fourteen to eighteen feet above the ground. The 
others are engaged in gathering the camphor from the trees which 
have been cut down. From the extraordinary thickness of the 
trunks, it often happens that a whole day is employed in fellinga 
single tree. 
On his second expedition from Loemoet to Pertibi, in the year 
1841, Dr. Junghuhn visited the bivouac of such a company in the 
neighborhood of Hoeraba, and by this means became acquainted 
with the method by which the natives obtain camphor or camphor- 
oil from the tree. 
The oil is collected in the following manner : — 
1. Incisions are made through the outer and inner-bark, at the 
lower part of the trunk close to the root, chiefly where the tree pro- 
duces the before- mentioned woody radiations, which alternate with 
vertical cavities, which are also observed in other trees growing 
between the tropics. The clear, yellow, balsamic, oily juice, 
which is discharged very slowly, is collected in a half-cylinder of 
very thin bamboo, cut longitudinally. According to the observa- 
tion of Junghuhn, who witnessed it, half a day was scarcely suf- 
ficient to half-fill a small tea-cup with this liquid, and even that 
small quantity was mixed with fragments of bark and other impu- 
