United States or Namibia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Had we been on foot we might have followed some paths which the bark-collectors had cut; but many of them would only allow of a person proceeding in a stooping posture under the numberless creepers which were interwoven amid the branches of the trees. We had therefore to make a considerable circuit.
Such is the end to which their hazardous occupation exposes the bark-collectors death in the midst of the forests, far from home; a death without help and without consolation.
It is sewn up in coarse canvas, with an outer covering of fresh hide, forming packages called serons. Thus prepared, it is transported to the coast for shipment. From the careless way in which the bark-collectors have hewn down the trees, often digging up the roots themselves, the production has greatly decreased.
"Forests containing groves of these trees are found in various regions throughout the northern parts of the Cordilleras. My friend here has been engaged since his boyhood in collecting the bark, as was his father before him. When searching for new districts, it is the custom for the cascarilleros, or bark-collectors, to set forth in parties of a dozen or more men, with supplies of food and tools.
The bark from the Loxa region is known as crown bark; that from Chimborazo, as red bark; while in the Huanaco region of Northern Peru grey bark is produced. When first the demand for the bark was established, bark-collectors, called cascarilleros, entered the forests in parties of a dozen or more, supplied with food and tools.
Word Of The Day