"The first levee of the first Governor of Victoria was held at two P.M., at which upwards of four hundred and fifty visitors were present; and the day's proceedings were concluded by a ball at the Benevolent Asylum, which was attended by all the rank and fashion of Melbourne. The road from the city was lighted all the way, and lined with policemen. The next morning the proclamation and notices of the various official and judicial appointments, &c., were published in a supplement to the Government "Gazette."

Now, although at first sight this appears to be a very ordinary newspaper paragraph, it is in reality pregnant with information; for it informs us that within the short space of sixteen years, a settlement founded by a few squatters from Van Diemen's Land had progressed so rapidly that its principal city could furnish a crowd of two thousand people as mere spectatators at a fete day; that the usual divisions of society in the Old World were already fully apparent, as was evidenced by the presentation of four hundred and fifty visitors to the representative of Her Majesty; that the city was furnished with its properly-organized police, and that the constituted authorities were duly supported by the presence of "the military;" that its ecclesiastical affairs had been so carefully attended to as to have insured the superintendence of a bishop, and that its second town of importance had its archdeacon; that there were a variety of interests or classes, sufficiently distinct and important to appoint each their deputations. And, to complete the picture, we may add that the colony has not only been a self-supporting one from the first, having never cost the mothercountry a single shilling, but has attained this position in spite of the Greatest opposition on the part of the Government.

(To be continued.)

HISTORY OF GUTTA PERCHA.

GUTTA percha-pronounced pertsha-is, as all are aware, a substance whose history is of only yesterday. If the Spaniards or the French can boast of having introduced caoutchouc to European notice, one of our own countrymen has the merit of the introduction of what will ultimately become a far more important substance than it. Dr. W. Montgomery is generally considered to have been the earliest to draw attention to this important product. In a letter addressed by him to the "Mechanics' Magazine" in 1846, the following concise account of its early discovery is contained, and may be requoted with advantage:-"As far back as 1822, when I was on duty at Singapore as assistant-surgeon to the Presidency, Í had obtained the name of it while making inquiries relative to caoutchouc, of which there are several varieties, and some very fine specimens were brought me, particularly one called 'gutta girek;' and I was told there was another variety called 'gutta percha,' and sometimes 'gutta tuban,' which they said was harder than the 'gutta girek;' but none of it was brought to me at that time, and I lost sight of it, having returned to the Bengal Presidency. But being again sent on duty to the Straits settlements, and while at Singapore in 1842, I on one occasion observed in the hands of a Malayan woodman the handle of a parang made of a substance which appeared quite new to me. My curiosity was excited, and on inquiry I found it was made of the gutta percha, and that it could be moulded into any form by simply dipping it into boiling water until it became heated throughout, when it becomes as plastic as clay, and when cold

regained unchanged its original hardness and rigidity. I immediately possessed myself of the article, and desired the man to fetch me as much more of it as he could get. On making some experiments with it, I at once discovered that, if procurable in large quantities, it would become extensively useful; and even if only in small quantities, it would still be invaluable in the formation of many surgical instruments which were made of caoutchouc, which had been dissolved in naphtha or other solvents, which became speedily damaged and totally useless in the damp and hot climate of the tropics. I therefore wrote to the Medical Board in Calcutta, strongly recommending its adoption, and sent specimens of the substance. After having examined it, the Board highly approved of my suggestion, and directed me to procure and send some of it to Calcutta, which was done. I also addressed a communication to the secretary of the Society of Arts, London, and sent some of the substance for investigation and analysis, for which, after my return to England, I had the honour to receive the Society's gold medal. I ascertained that the tree producing it is one of the largest of the forest, growing to the size of three or four feet diameter; that the wood is of no value as timber, but that an edible concrete oil is procurable from the fruit, and often used by the natives with their food."

It appears, however, that a Spaniard, Sir Joze d'Almerida, again contests the honour of first discovery in reference to a substance so closely allied to caoutchouc. This gentleman, having been a long resident at Singapore, came over to England in the beginning of 1843, and brought several samples of the gutta percha with him, some of which he presented to the Royal Asiatic Society, for which he received their letter of acknowledgment and thanks, dated in April in that year. It appears that his attention to the substance had been attracted by noticing the material of which some whips were made. These were brought by some Malays into the town and sold, and so the gutta percha came into his hands. We have no means of stating which of these claims is the most valid, but would leave them where they lie for others to decide. It is highly amusing to find our neighbours the French also trying to establish a claim to the discovery of gutta percha, which is described in some of their journals as one of the happy results of their expedition to China. At the very period of the despatch of this expedition gutta percha was already patented in England!

The introduction of gutta percha into England is thus described by a writer in the "Illustrated London News":

"It is not quite eight years since the substance called gutta percha was transmitted from Singapore to the secretary to the Society of Arts, for the purpose of subjecting it to a rigid examination, in order to ascertain whether it would be desirable to collect it in large quantities, which were easily obtainable in that island, so that as a new article of commerce it might, with as little delay as possible, be introduced to this country. The samples sent to the Adelphi, by Dr. Montgomery, were contained in a small deal box, and consisted, first, of the juice of gutta percha in a bottle; second, thin pieces of the substance, in appearance somewhat resembling leather; third, the gutta percha in its concrete state; and, lastly, lumps of the gutta percha formed by agglutinating the thin pieces together by means of hot water.

"Chemists, manufacturers, and others were all anxious to obtain small pieces of the material, for the purpose of making experiments therewith. Among these applicants, Mr. Charles Hancock was foremost; and while

the chemical committee of the Society were waiting for the reports of practical men on the subject, this enthusiastic gentleman having had permission to possess a very small piece of the substance, made himself so thoroughly master of the nature of gutta percha, that it was not very long before he took out patents for machinery suitable to the manufacture of articles for various useful purposes to which it has been applied.

"In the meantime, however, the secretary of the Society of Arts had made a variety of experiments with this highly-interesting substance; the result of which was, that, at one of their weekly meetings, he was enabled to repeat his experiments before a full meeting, and produced on that occasion a pipe and a lathe-band, and covered a soda-water bottle with a thin coating of the substance. Impressions of medals which had been produced by the same gentleman were also laid before the meeting."

Two of the staple articles of the gutta percha manufacture, viz., a pipe and a lathe-band, as made by hand, previously to the introduction of machinery for that purpose, were shown in the Great Exhibition. It is an interesting fact, also, that the original specimens sent by Dr. Montgomery to the East India House were likewise exhibited on that occasion, and might have been seen in the Indian collection.

BOTANICAL HISTORY OF GUTTA PERCHA.

The trees which yield it appear widely diffused over the Indian Archipelago; they are common in many places in the island of Singapore, and also in the forests of Johore, at the extremity of the Malayan peninsula. It is also said to be abundant on the south-eastern coast of the island of Borneo. In the forests on the west coast, in the vicinity of Sarawak, Sir James Brooke says, "The tree is called Niato by the Sarawak people, but they are not acquainted with the properties of its sap; it attains a considerable size, even as large as six feet diameter; is plentiful in Sarawak, and most probably all over the island of Borneo." It appears also to be abundant in the thousand islands that cluster to the south of the Straits of Singapore. A writer in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago states, that it is found all up the Malayan peninsula as far as Parang. In the vicinity of the latter place it is abundant; yet so ignorant are the inhabitants of the valuable property they have at their own doors, that several mercantile houses, at an early period in the commercial history of gutta percha, sent down to Singapore for supplies of an article that might have been obtained on the spot!

The localities in which the trees delight are the alluvial terraces along the foot of the hills, where they flourish luxuriantly, forming in many spots the principal portion of the jungle. The profusion of vegetation which adorns the Indian Archipelago, and of which the gutta percha tree forms so conspicuous a portion, can scarcely be conceived. The greater part of it is clothed to the water's edge with wood. Passing into the deep shade of its mountain forests, trees of gigantic forms and exuberant foliage rise on every side, each species shooting up its trunk to its utmost measure of development, and striving, as it seems, to escape from the dense crowd; others, as if no room were left for them to grow in the ordinary way, emulate the shape of serpents, compass their less pliant neighbours in their folds, twine their branches into one connected canopy, or hang down, here loose, and swaying in the air or in festoons from tree to tree, and there stiff and rooted. No sooner has decay diminished the green array of a branch,

than its place is supplied by epiphytes, chiefly of the fragrant orchid tribe, of the most singular and beautiful forms.

"The interrupted notes of birds, loud or low, rapid or long-drawn, cheerful or plaintive, and ranging over a greater or less musical compass, are the most pleasing sounds heard; the most constant are those of insects, which sometimes rise into a shrill and deafening clangour; and the most impressive are the prolonged complaining cries of the unkas. As we penetrate deeper into the forest, green and harmless snakes hang like tender branches; others of deeper and mingled colours, but less innocuous, lie coiled up, or, disturbed by the human intruder, assume an angry and dangerous look, but glide out of sight. Insects, in their shapes and hues, imitate leaves, twigs, and flowers. Monkeys of all sizes and colours spring from branch to branch, or in long trains rapidly retreat up the trunks. Deer, and among them the graceful palandoh, no bigger than a hare, and celebrated in Malayan poetry, on our approach fly startled from the pools which they and the wild hog frequent. Lively squirrels of different species are everywhere met with. Amongst a great variety of other remarkable animals which range the forest, we may, according to our locality, number herds of elephants, the rhinoceros, tigers, the tapir, the bábírúsa, the orang útan, the sloth; and of the winged tribes, the gorgeously beautiful birds of paradise, the loris, the peacock, and the argus pheasant. The margins of rivers and creeks are haunted by large alligators. An endless variety of fragile and richly-coloured shells not only lie empty on the sandy beaches, but are tenanted by pagurian crabs, which in clusters batten upon every morsel of fat seaweed that has been left by the retiring waves. The coasts are fringed by living rocks of beautiful colours, and shaped like trees, flowers, bushes, and other symmetrical forms."

Such is the vivid description of this scene given by a local writer in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago; and amid this exuberance of life the gutta percha lifts its tall head, pre-eminent over many around it.

An interesting account of this tree has been given by Mr. Oxley in the periodical last quoted. From this account we learn that the tree is from sixty to seventy feet in height, and from two to three feet in diameter on the average. In general appearance it resembles the well-known Doorian; so much so as to strike the most superficial observer. The under surface of the leaf, however, is of a more reddish and decided brown than the doorian, and the shape is somewhat different. Only a short time ago this tree, locally called the tuban tree, was tolerably abundant in the Island of Singapore; but already all the large timber has been felled, and few if any other than small plants are now to be found. The range of its growth, however, appears to be considerable, although as yet the inhabitants scarcely seem to be aware of the fact.

The localities in which it most luxuriantly flourishes are, as already noticed, the alluvial tracts along the foot of the hills, where it flourishes abundantly. But notwithstanding the indigenous character of the tree, its apparent abundance and wide-spread diffusion, it appeared at one time very probable that gutta percha would become speedily a very scarce article, in consequence of the improvident manner in which it was collected by the Malays and Chinese. The mode of collection then adopted was the following:-A tree of full growth was cut down, and the bark removed in rings, at distances of about twelve to eighteen inches apart. An empty receptacle, such as a cocoa-nut shell, the spathe of a palm, or such like, was then placed under the fallen trunk, so as to receive the milky sap

which exuded at every incision. The sap was then collected in bamboos, taken to the houses of the collectors and boiled, in order to drive off the watery particles, and to inspissate the liquor to a proper consistence. The process of boiling appears necessary when it is collected in large quantities; but if a gutta percha tree be partially wounded, and a small quantity allowed to exude, and it be collected and moulded in the hand, it will consolidate perfectly in a few minutes, and present the same appearance as that prepared in the other way.

When gutta percha is quite pure, the colour is of a greyish white; but the commercial specimens are more commonly found to possess a reddish hue. This colour arises, it is said, from chips of bark which fall into the sap in the act of making the incisions, and which yield their colour to it. Besides these accidental chips, there is an enormous amount of intentional adulteration by sawdust and other materials. The quantity yielded by one tree, treated in the manner above described, has been stated at from five to twenty catties; so that, taking the average of ten catties as obtained from each, and this is a very liberal one, it will require the destruction of ten trees to produce one picul, or 133 lbs.

"The quantity exported," proceeds the writer, in the Journal of the Malayan Archipelago, from whence we have borrowed the above account, "from Singapore to Great Britain, from January 1, 1846, to June 1847, amounted to 6,918 piculs, to obtain which 69,180 trees must have been sacrificed. How much better would it, therefore, be to adopt the method of tapping the tree practised by the Burmese in obtaining the caoutchouc from the Ficus elastica (namely, to make oblique incisions in the bark, placing bamboos to receive the sap, which runs out freely), than to kill the goose in the manner they are at present doing. True, they would not get at first so much from a single tree, but the ultimate gain would be incalculable, particularly as the tree seems to be one of slow growth. If the present method of extermination be persisted in, there will probably be a cessation of the supply.

SEA-SIDE PLEASURES, No. III. (continued).

BUT the eye took in the whole expanse of the Sands, extending in a sweeping curve for about three miles, and terminating in a long and lofty promontory known as Baggy Point. The great breadth of this beach of sand, for the tide had now receded far; its uniform yellow hue, unsullied by a speck, save where a flock of gulls were washing their feet in a tiny streamlet; the promontory beyond, chequered over with fields and hedges; the still bolder promontory of Hartland Point (the Herculis Promontorium of ancient geography), blue and well-defined, though twenty miles distant, and running out to a great length upon the horizon, were all objects on which the eye of the beholder rested with pleasure. But perhaps more lovely than all beside was the wide expanse of sea, sleeping in azure brightness, and reflecting in one part, as from a mirror of steel, the dazzling rays of the afternoon sun.

The sides of the road were sweet with wild thyme, and gay with the delicate pink blossoms of the little centaury; but what interested me more was that the furze-bushes, for a considerable space, were covered with the leafless stems of that curious plant, the dodder, looking as if hanks of crimson thread had been opened and spread over them.