adhere to this horrible invader, and are drawn irresistibly backwards into the hungry toothless jaws awaiting them.
“The Little Ant-eater is not more than about twenty-one inches in length, has a shorter and more natural looking head, and fine silky fur. It usually lives in trees.”
I was pleased to find my memory served me so well on this subject, as it interested my boy amazingly; and occupied us for a considerable time while we travelled onwards.
Arriving presently at a grove of tall trees, with very strong, broad, thick leaves, we paused to examine them; they bore a round fig-like fruit, full of little seeds and of a sour harsh taste.
Fritz saw some gummy resin exuding from cracks in the bark, and it reminded him of the boyish delight afforded by collecting gum from cherry-trees at home, so that he must needs stop to scrape off as much as he could. He rejoined me presently, attempting to soften what he had collected in his hands; but finding it would not work like gum, he was about to fling it away, when he suddenly found that he could stretch it, and that it sprang back to its original size.
“Oh father, only look! this gum is quite elastic! Can it possibly be indiarubber?”
“What!” cried I; “let me see it! a valuable discovery that would be, indeed; and I do believe you are perfectly right!”
“Why would it be so very valuable, father?” inquired Fritz. “I have only seen it used for rubbing out pencil marks.”
“Indiarubber,” I replied, “or more properly, caoutchouc, is a milky resinous juice which flows from certain trees in considerable quantities when the stem is purposely tapped. These trees are indigenous to the South American countries of Brazil, Guiana, and Cayenne. The natives, who first obtained it, used to form bottles by smearing earthern flasks with repeated coatings of the gum when just fresh from the trees; and when hardened and suffi-
