INDIA RUBBER AND GUTTA-PERCHA. 679 



Fig. 2, but the knots are all at the toe loop, and the entire lacing 

 is in one piece. 



Fig. 4 is quite different from the other three, and is practically- 

 woven on four coarse warp strands, by wickerwork, the thick 

 ends of the leaves being left on top and shredded to form a soft 

 bed for the foot. The toe loop is as in Fig. 2. Many sandals of 

 eastern Asia are woven on the same plan, the long ends of the 

 warp being left underneath next to the ground. 



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INDIA RUBBER AND GUTTA-PERCHA. 



By CLARKE DOOLEY. 



W"AS India rubber known to the ancients ? Early writers do 

 not mention it. We need not necessarily conclude, how- 

 ever, that the primitive peoples established on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean were ignorant of the existence of this substance. 

 The game of tennis is one of great antiquity, Herodotus attrib- 

 uting its invention to the Lydians. It is believed they got it 

 from Egypt, which may have received it from Ethiopia. It is 

 known that India-rubber trees are found in Abyssinia to-day. 

 Hence it is reasonable to suppose they were indigenous there in 

 earlier times, and that the inhabitants knew how to prepare re- 

 silient balls from their milky product. The Chinese have laid 

 claim to the discovery of rubber, but have so far been unable to 

 prove that they were the first to employ it. Modern Europe had 

 no knowledge of it until the discovery of America. The Span- 

 iards were much surprised to find the Indians playing tennis with 

 balls made of a strange substance which excited their attention, 

 as mentioned by Fernandez de Oviedo at the beginning of the six- 

 teenth century. 



This remarkable substance is obtained from the milky juice of 

 certain trees and different varieties of climbers. South America 

 is the principal source of supply Brazil, of the many states pro- 

 ducing it, leading in quantity and quality, and having in its great 

 forests sufficient to meet twice the wants of the world. The best 

 is Para (fine, medium, and sernamby), from the great basin of the 

 Amazon, where more than eighty thousand seringueiros (gath- 

 erers) are engaged in the dry season in collecting gum. White 

 Para, " virgin sheets," a new variety in three grades, comes from 

 Matto Grosso. Since its importance first began to be felt, this 

 gum has exerted an increasing influence upon the spread of civili- 

 zation, especially along the Amazon and Orinoco and their tribu- 

 taries and the great streams which pour out from the interior of 

 the Dark Continent. Para, formerly an insignificant village, has 



