unds) of the finest camphor I ever saw, and also this log, which
is very rich. My reason for being thus particular is that the country
people have a method of pouring oil of inferior camphor-trees into a log
of wood that has natural cracks, and, by exposing this to the sun every
day for a week, it appears like genuine camphor; but is the worst sort.

...

This coexistence of the two products has been since confirmed to me by
others, and is particularly stated by Mr. Macdonald in his ingenious
paper on certain Natural Productions of Sumatra, published in the Asiatic
Researches Volume 4 Calcutta 1795. It seems probable on the whole that,
as the tree advances in age, a greater proportion of this essential oil
takes a concrete form, and it has been observed to me that, when the
fresh oil has been allowed to stand and settle, a sediment of camphor is
procured; but the subject requires further examination by well-informed
persons on the spot.

PRICE.

Head camphor is usually purchased from those who procure it at the rate
of six Spanish dollars the pound, or eight dollars the catty, and sells
in the China market at Canton for nine to twelve dollars the pound, or
twelve to fifteen hundred dollars the pekul of a hundred catties or one
hundred thirty-three pounds and a third, avoirdupois. When of superior
quality it sells for two thousand dollars, and I have been assured that
some small choice samples have produced upwards of thirty dollars per
catty.* It is estimated that the whole quantity annually brought down for
sale on the western side of the island does not exceed fifty pekul. The
trade is chiefly in the hands of the Achinese settled at Sinkell, who buy
the article from the Batta people and dispose of it to the Europeans and
Chinese settlers.

(*Footnote. See Price Currents of the China trade. Camphor was purchased
in Sumatra by Commodore Beaulieu in 1622 at the rate of fifteen Spanish
dollars for twenty-eight ounces, which differs but little from the modern
price. In the Transactions of the Society at Batavia it appears that the
camphor of Borneo sells in their market for 3200 rix dollars, and that of
Japan for 50 rix dollars the pekul.)

JAPAN CAMPHOR.

It has been commonly supposed that the people of China or Japan prepare a
factitious substance resembling native camphor, and impregnated with its
virtues by the admixture of a small quantity of the genuine, which is
sold to the Dutch factory for thirty or forty