Oh. III.] INDIA-RUBBER. 33 



to bring the rubber they obtain to the merchants who 

 have fitted them out, but very many prove faithless, and 

 carry off their produce to other towns, where they have 

 110 difficulty in finding purchasers. Notwithstanding 

 these losses, the merchants engaged in the rubber trade 

 have done well ; its steadily increasing value during the 

 last few years having made the business a highly re- 



> c> * 



munerative one. According to the information sup- 

 plied to me at Greytown by Mr. Paton, the exports of 

 rubber from that port had increased from 401,475 Ibs., 

 valued at 112,413 dollars, in 1867, to 754,886 Ibs., valued 

 at 226,465 dollars, in 1871. India rubber was well 

 known to the ancient inhabitants of Central America. 

 Before the Spanish conquest the Mexicans played with 

 balls made from it, and it still bears its Aztec name of 

 UUi, from which the Spaniards call the collectors of it 

 Ulkros. It is obtained from quite a different tree, and 

 prepared in a different manner, from the rubber of the 

 Amazons. The latter is taken from the Siphonia elastica, 

 a Euphorbiaceous tree ; but in Central America the tree 

 that yields it is a specimen of wild fig (Castilloa elastica}. 

 It is easily known by its large leaves, and I saw several 

 whilst ascending the river. When the collectors find an 

 untapped one in the forest, they first make a ladder out 

 of the lianas or " vejuccos" that hang from every tree ; 

 this they do by tying short pieces of wood across them 

 with small lianas, many of which are as tough as cord. 

 They then proceed to score the bark, with cuts which 

 extend nearly round the tree like the letter Y, the point 

 being downwards. A cut like this is made about every 

 three feet all the way up the trunk. The milk will all 

 run out of a tree in about an hour after it is cut, and is 



D 



