THE VEGETATION OF THE VIRGIN-FOREST.
119
greatly resembles rich cow's-milk. The workman, sitting beside this "chimney," through which roll dense clouds of a smothering white smoke, from a small calabash pours a little of the milk on a sort of light wooden shovel, always careful, by proper management of the latter, to distribute it evenly over the surface. Thrusting the shovel into the thick smoke over the opening of the jar, he turns it  several  times to
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MTUltCATED   PALM-LEAF.
and fro with great rapidity,  when the milk is seen to consolidate and to take a greyish-yellow tinge.
Thus he puts layer upon layer, until at last the caoutchouc on both sides of the wood has reached about an inch in thickness, when he thinks the " plancha" ready. Cutting it on one side, he takes it off the shovel and suspends it in the sun to dry, as there is  always   some   water  between  the  several  layers,   which  should,   if