the camphor
laurel. This oil is separated from the plant, and then undergoes the
process of refining. It is mixed with water, and then boiled in a sort
of retort. It makes steam, which is allowed to escape through a small
aperture, which is then closed, and the camphor becomes solid in the
upper part of the vessel. This is the article which is sent to market.

"All the spices and fruits of the Torrid Zone are produced in Borneo,
with cotton and sugar-cane in certain parts. The animals of the island
are about the same as in other parts of the Archipelago. The monkey
tribe is the most abundant, including the simia, the gibbon, the
orang-outang, found in no other island, except very rarely in Sumatra,
where our hunters did not find even one; tapirs"--

"What are they?" asked Uncle Moses.

"They are a sort of cross between an elephant and a hog. They are found
all over South American tropical regions and in this part of Asia. The
animal is more like a hog than like an elephant, though it has the same
kind of a skin as the latter. It is about the size of the average
donkey. It has a snout which is prehensile, like the trunk of an
elephant, but on a very small scale.

"What does that mean?" asked Mrs. Blossom.

"Capable of taking hold of anything, as the elephant does with his
proboscis. The tapir is one of the gentler animals, and may be easily
tamed; though it will fight and bite hard when attacked, or harried by
dogs. They take to the water readily, though the American swims, while
the Asiatic only walk on the bottom. One book I consulted calls the
tapir a kind of tiger, to which he bears hardly any resemblance.

"The other animals are small Malay bears, wild swine, horned cattle, and
puny deer. The elephant and rhinoceros are found, few in number, in the
north. The birds are the eagle, vulture, argus-pheasant,--a singular and
beautiful bird,--peacocks, flamingoes, and swifts."

"What in the world are swifts?" inquired Mrs. Woolridge.

"They are a kind of swallow, of which you may have seen some as we came
down from Rangoon. They make the edible birds'-nests which are so great
a delicacy among the Chinese when made into soup. The rivers, lakes,
and swamps swarm with crocodiles, the real man-eaters. Leeches are a
nuisance when you bathe in the rivers and ponds, and various kinds of
snakes abound. There are plenty of fish in the sea, lakes, and rivers.
Diamonds, gold, coal, copper, are mined in the island.

"All of