338       ON  THE  FRANKINCENSE-TREE  OF  WESTERN  AFRICA. 
"  This  mine  was  long  known  to  the  Indians,  who  resorted 
hither  for  the  vermilion,  which  they  could  collect  from  the  cin- 
nabar. They  had  dug  some  thirty  or  forty  feet  into  the  mountain; 
but  it  does  not  appear  ever  to  have  been  worked  by  the  Spaniards. 
In  recent  times  its  commercial  value  was  first  discovered  by  Se- 
nor  Castillero,  who  became  its  legal  owner.  Don  Jose'  Castro, 
who  subsequently  became  proprietor  of  it,  sold  his  interest  to 
Barron  &  Forbes,  an  English  house  doing  business  in  Mexico. 
Another  partner  is  Mr.  Walkinshaw,  an  English  gentleman, 
long  resident  in  Mexico,  and  well  skilled  in  mining.  This  gen- 
tleman now  resides  at  New  Almaden.  Mr.  Young  is  the  super- 
intendent of  the  mine,  and  Mr.  Beston  is  the  engineer. 
"  During  the  year  1853,  the  total  exports  of  quicksilver  from 
San  Francisco  amounted  to  1,350,000  lbs.,  valued  at  683,189 
dollars.  All  this,  together  with  the  large  amount  used  in  Cali- 
fornia was  the  product  of  the  New  Almaden  mine.  The  follow- 
ing shows  to  what  points  the  quicksilver  was  exported  : — Hong 
Kong,  423,150  lbs.;  Shanghae,  60,900  lbs.;  Canton,  27,450  lbs.; 
Whampoa,  22,500  lbs.;  Calcutta,  3,750  lbs.;  Mazatlan,  210,825 
lbs.;  Mazatlan  and  San  Bias,  19,125  lbs.;  San  Bias,  145,652  lbs.; 
Callao,  135,000  lbs.  ;  Valparaiso,  148,275  lbs. ;  New  York, 
138,375  lbs.;  Philadelphia,  75,000  lbs. — London  Pharm.  Jour- 
nal, 1855. 
ON  THE  FRANKINCENSE  TREE  OF  WESTERN  AFRICA.  (DANI- 
ELLIA  THURIFERA,  BENNETT.) 
By  W.  F,  Daniell,  M.D.,  F.L.S., 
Honorary  Member  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society. 
The  tree  that  furnishes  the  product  termed  African  Frankin- 
cense, though  of  plentiful  growth  in  the  peninsula  of  Sierra  Leone 
and  circumjacent  regions,  appears  hitherto  to  have  escaped  the 
attention  of  the  voyagers  and  travellers  who  for  so  many  centu- 
ries visited  this  part  of  the  coast.  The  knowledge,  therefore, 
with  reference  to  its  existence,  can  only  be  limited  to  a  compara- 
tively recent  period,  or  within  the  present  century.  No  mention 
has  been  made  of  this  substance  in  the  works  of  either  Afzelius 
or  Winterbottom,  and  all  the  information  to  be  obtained  is  a 
traditional  rumor  that  vaguely  ascribes  the  discovery  of  its 
