Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/744

 734 CAOUTCHOUC in ambush for them. It is said that the scaup or black-head can be allured in this manner more easily than the canvas-back ; and that the red-heads and widgeons, when they are alone, cannot be deceived at all, though when in company with others they will fall into the same error, and accompany the flocks to their own destruction. Advantage has been taken of this habit to ensnare the unwary birds by a system which is called toling. It is thus practised: A long range of screens is set up along the shore, within a few yards of the water mark, behind which the shooters lie concealed, with small openings at intervals to permit the egress and ingress of a small cur- dog, the more like a fox the better, as also the odder his appearance and the more remarkable his color, who is taught to run back and for- ward in front of the blinds, performing all sorts of curious tricks and antics, to attract the at- tention of the fowl. So soon as this object is attained, they will swim up in a body within easy gunshot ; and so totally are they demented by their curiosity, that so long as the shooter holds himself concealed, and the dog continues his deceptive gambols, so long can the stupid birds be drawn up, to receive volley after vol- ley, until they are decimated or destroyed, perfectly regardless of their dead or wounded companions, through which they will continue to advance to the muzzles of the guns. The only thing necessary to be observed in this sort of shooting is not to overshoot the flock, which a novice is sure to do, so deceptive is the effect of shooting over water. The plan adopted by the oldest shooters is, in taking aim, to see the whole body of the nearest fowl, in a flock of hundreds, in clear relief above the sight of the gun, and then the charge will fall into the middle of the throng. By good sportsmen, toling, and indeed any other way of shooting canvas-backs than on the wing, from points, is held to be rank poaching. When the rivers begin to freeze, vast numbers of all these varieties of ducks congregate at the open air holes, and fearful slaughter is made of them in hard weather at snch places; as many, it is said, as 88 canvas-backs having been killed at a single discharge of a heavy gun. Wounded canvas-backs are expert divers, and are extremely difficult to recover ; where- fore it is usual to be accompanied by a good Newfoundland retriever. CAOUTCHOUC, or India Rubber (called by the South American Indians cahuchu), the inspis- sated milky juice of a number of trees and plants found in Mexico and Central America, in Brazil, Guiana, Peru, and in the East Indies. The Mexican tree is the castilloa elastic, a ge- nus belonging to the order artocarpaceas. The South American tree has been variously named by different naturalists. It is the jatropha elastica of Linnaeus, the siphonia elastica of Persoon, the siphonia cahuchu of Scherber and Willdenow, and the hevea Guianensis of Au- blet, and belongs to the order evphorbiacets. The trees which furnish the greater part of the caoutchouc brought from the East Indies are teficus elastica of Assam, of the order mora- ceai, and the urceola elastica of Sumatra and FIG. 1. Ficus elastica. other islands of the eastern archipelago, which belongs to the order apocynacece. The ficus elastica is one of the noblest of trees, and be- yond the Ganges are found inexhaustible for- ests of it. Several years ago William Griffith, an Englishman, published a report upon this caoutchouc tree of Assam at the request of Capt. Jenkins, the agent of the governor gen- eral of India, in which he says the tree is either solitary, or in two- or three-fold groups ; is large and umbrageous, and may be distinguished from other trees at a distance of several miles by the picturesque appearance of its dense and lofty crown. The main trunk of one measured 74 ft. in circumference, and the area covered by its expanded branches had a circumference of 610 ft. The height of the central tree was 100 ft. It has been estimated that there are over 43,000 such trees in the district of Chard- war, in an area 30 m. in length by 8 in width. It grows on the slopes of the mountains from the valleys up to an elevation of 22,000 ft. Its geographical range in Assam appears to be between lat. 25 and 27 N., and between about Ion. 90 and 95 E. It is allied to the banian (ficus Indica). The urceola elastica, a twig of which in blossom, with some of the fruit, is represented in fig. 2, is a large climb- ing tree, with a trunk frequently as thick as a man's body. It has sharp, ovate-oblong, op- posite leaves, with a rough upper and hairy under surface, and bears many-flowered termi- nal cymes of small greenish blossoms, which produce double fruits, consisting of two large, roundish, apricot-colored, rough, leathery- skinned pieces, about the size of oranges, con- taining numerous kidney-shaped seeds in a copious tawny-colored pulp, which is much