The Sherbro and its hinterland . thetrunks at sharp angles, crossing paths of tracks and losingthemselves in the dense undergrowth. They are, ofcourse, inconvenient to meet. Frequently they are sohigh that the carriers cannot get over them with theirloads, and have to be assisted ; and if you are in ahammock you must get down and scramble over the bestway you can. But, unpleasant as they may be as ob-stacles, they certainly enhance the wild grandeur of thescenery. During the dries the cotton tree is completelybare of leaves. The photograph from which Figure 23is reproduced was taken in the mon
The Sherbro and its hinterland . thetrunks at sharp angles, crossing paths of tracks and losingthemselves in the dense undergrowth. They are, ofcourse, inconvenient to meet. Frequently they are sohigh that the carriers cannot get over them with theirloads, and have to be assisted ; and if you are in ahammock you must get down and scramble over the bestway you can. But, unpleasant as they may be as ob-stacles, they certainly enhance the wild grandeur of thescenery. During the dries the cotton tree is completelybare of leaves. The photograph from which Figure 23is reproduced was taken in the month of March, whennot a leaf was to be seen. The little dots with which itis covered are the pods containing a fluffy silk, that wasthen being blown all over the place. This silk is of tooshort a staple for weaving, but it ought to be of commer-cial value, as it is useful locally for stuffing pillows ; atpresent, however, it is neither collected nor exported. Thecotton tree must not be confounded with the well-knowncotton I To />(ige 82. Iig. 23—A Cotton Trkk wrniorT Toitack, hit with a massOK Ioiis. Tiknkrs , VIII INDIGENOUS PRODUCTS 83 Clumps of real bamboo are now and again met, butthey are not particular favourites, as they afford excep-tionally good cover for snakes. The thicker canes, whencut into short sections, make excellent receptacles forwater, palm wine, or palm oil. Figure 50 shows a cotton tree in full leaf, taken inApril. G 2 CHAPTER IX INDIGENOUS PRODUCTS: RUBBER ^ The rubber vine, called in the Mendi language Jekn-Jeh,which is found throughout the country wherever vegetationis big and tall, especially in forests, is a species of Lan-dolphia. It attains a great height, and I have seen it attimes as thick as three to four inches in diameter, althoughits usual workable stem is only about an inch and a found on visiting Upper Mendi that the people knewabsolutely nothing about the properties of rubber, bu
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