It is as thick as molasses, and will keep for a long time if sheltered from the action of the air.
The upas does not grow as a gregarious tree, and is nowhere found in numbers.

Like the precious treasures of nature--gold, diamonds, and pearls--her poisons, too, happily for man, are sparsely distributed.
Even in the climate and soil congenial to it, the _antiaris toxicaria_ is rare; but wherever discovered is sure to be frequently visited, if in a district where there are hunters or warriors wishing to empoison and make more deadly their shafts.

A upas-tree in a well-known neighbourhood is usually disfigured by seams and scars, where incisions have been made to extract its envenomed juice.
That there were no such marks upon the one where they had made their camp, was evidence that the neighbourhood was uninhabited.

So said Saloo, and the others were but too glad to accept his interpretation of the sign..