00 to 8200 feet. The trees are
there from 30 to 48 feet high, with three or more stems growing from the
same root. The leaves are like those already described. The bark is
black when exposed to the sun and wind, but of a brownish colour when
surrounded by other trees; and is always covered with lichens. 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. At their head was a searcher
(_cateador_), who, climbing a high tree, looked out for the _manchas_,
or clumps of chinchona-trees, which experience taught him to know by
their dark colour and the peculiar reflection of the light from their
leaves amidst those endless expanses of forest. Having marked the spot,
he descended, and led his party, sometimes for hours together, through
the tangled wilderness, using the wood-knife to mark his way to the
chinchona clump. As soon as it was found, rude huts were built, and the
parties commenced their work. Having with their axes laid the tree
level with the ground, cutting it as close as possible to the roots, the
work of stripping off the bark was commenced. The original mode of
doing this is still continued. It is done by dividing the stems into
pieces of uniform length. The bark is then cut lengthwise, so as to
remove the rind without injuring the wood, or severing any of the
fibres. In a few days the bark is taken off in strips as broad as
possible, and is afterwards pressed out into flat pieces. That,
however, taken from the thinner branches is allowed to retain its form,
and is known as quill bark--called by the natives _canuto_; that from
the solid trunk is called _tabla_ or _plancha_. 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. When the root is allowed to remain, and the stem hewn as
near as possible to it, an after-growth is produced, which, in the
milder regions, in the space of six years again produces bark. In the
colder regions twenty years are required be