THE  GUMS  AND  RESINS  OP  COMMERCE. 
75 
article — now  called  British  gum — dextrine,  or  gum  substitute, 
has  superseded  the  more  expensive  in  almost  every  department 
of  manufacture  and  art  in  which  it  was  used — hence  the  demand 
for  Kaffir  gum  is  at  an  end.  British  gum  is  found  to  possess 
adhesive  properties  equal  to  gum  Arabic,  being  less  liable  to  be 
affected  by  climate ;  it  is  therefore  used  for  postage-stamps, 
envelopes,  &c,  as  well  as  in  manufactures,  and  it  can  be  pro- 
duced for  less  than  one-fourth  the  cost. 
Some  fortunes  have  been  made  by  the  discovery,  which  origi- 
nated in  pure  accident,  and  which  is  stated  to  have  been  made 
as  follows : — 
A  fire  took  place  in  a  manufactory  of  starch  from  potatoes, 
near  Dublin.  The  burning  building  was  deluged  with  water 
from  the  fire-engines,  and  the  starch  washed  about  in  every  di- 
rection. A  man  fell  down  into  the  flood  of  calcined  starch  and 
water,  but  thought  no  more  of  it  until  next  morning,  when  dress- 
ing himself  he  found  the  legs  of  his  trowsers,  sleeves  of  his  coat, 
pockets,  and  every  other  opening  firmly  obstructed.  On  exami- 
nation he  thought  he  had  fallen  into  gum,  but  on  revisiting  the 
scene  of  the  fire  he  discovered  that  the  properties  must  be  con- 
tained in  the  potato  starch,  and  by  a  few  simple  experiments  he 
made  a  discovery  which  has  resulted  in  large  profits. 
According  to  the  statement  of  Dr.  Yaughan,  of  Aden,  the 
acacia  which  yields  gum  Arabic  is  generally  a  small  shrub,  of  a 
dry  and  withered  appearance  ;  occasionally,  however,  it  shoots 
out  into  a  tree  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  high.  The  Somalis, 
on  the  north-east  coast  of  Africa,  collect  the  gum  during  the 
months  of  December  and  January.  The  process  of  obtaining 
it  is  extremely  simple ;  long  incisions  are  made  in  the  stem  and 
branches,  from  which  the  juice  flows,  and  when  dry  is  removed. 
After  the  gum  of  a  district  has  been  gathered,  it  is  sewn  up  in 
goat  skins,  and  brought  on  camels  to  the  great  Berbera  fair,  or 
to  some  of  the  smaller  settlements  on  the  coast,  and  thence 
shipped  to  Aden  and  India. 
There  are  three  descriptions  of  the  gum,  styled  severally  Felick, 
Zeila,  and  Berbera.  None  of  the  first-named,  which  is  esteemed 
the  best,  finds  its  ways  to  Aden,  the  mass  being  usually  bought 
up  by  the  Banians  or  Hindoo  merchants,  and  shipped  direct  to 
Bombay,  where  it  realizes  about  50s.  the  cwt.    The  other  two 
