10 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



lOcTonER t, 1910. 



A RUBBER TREE CUT DOWN FOR ITS I'KOUUCT. 



although the rubber has not been ver>' extensively gathered, the 

 early exploration having been for quinine. It appears on the map 

 as being Colombian property, but it is well to add that it is 

 claimed by Peru. Indeed, Peruvian custom houses vi^ere estab- 

 lished and taxes collected on all exports. The governments of 

 Colombia and Peru, however, put in force a modus vivendi, giv- 

 ing both countries equal rights on the Putumayo until the 

 boundaries settled by arbitration. 



Most of the rubber exploitation in the Brazils has been south 

 of the .Amazon. That there are a great variety of rubber pro- 

 ducing trees north of the Amazon is undoubted. There are 

 many sections where the Hevea Brasilicnsis does not seem to 

 be present. The Guyanciisis, however, is very widely distributed, 

 and produces a rubber that is well worth gathering, iilthough 

 it is probable that it needs different treatment in coagu/ation, 

 from the Brasiliensis. 



The southwestern states of Venezuela, notably .^mazonas. 

 drained by the Rio Negro, are said to be very rich in rubber 

 trees. A certain amount of rubber known as ".A.ngostura," fine 

 and course, comes down to Manaos and once the territory, par- 

 ticularly to the east of Bolivar, is explored, both rubber and 

 balata undoubtedly will be found in abundance. 



The upper Rio Negro, it will be remembered, is joined to tlu 

 upper Orinoco by a river known as the Casiquiare, so thai then 

 is a waterway from Manaos to the upper Orinoco. 



It is said that gatherers up the Rio Xegro are much more 

 careless than they arc south of the Amazon. A rubber exporter 

 in Manaos, describing their method of tapping, said that the 

 gatherer first made a trough around the body of the tree, using 

 the pith of the "miritic" palm. Above this he made incisions, 

 and as the latex ran down into the trough, it drained ofT into a 

 little earthen pot set on the ground. TIarcKvood smoke was 

 used in curing instead of palm nuts. 



REMINISCENCES OF MANAOS. 



A city so far removed from New York as Manaos is an ideal 

 reflector of the sort of permanent impression a foreign visitor 

 leaves behind him. It is usually some particular idiosyncrasy, 

 mannerism, or fad that is held in remembrance. Thus, for ex- 

 ample. Manaos remembered a speculative rubber promoter as 

 possessing a very broad, tooth-showing smile; a millionaire 

 yachtsman and Wall Street magnate as a good-natured prince of 

 perspiration; a New York city official, once in rubber, as dictat- 

 ing to three stenographers at once (why didn't he hire one good 

 one?), and so on. 



Perhaps the one whom they remembered best, and with sur- 



prised awe, was a certain boyish American, who appeared on the 

 aveiiida, coatless, vestless — the only man in Manaos without belt 

 or sash, his trousers held up by good old-fashioned "galluses." 

 This youngster crossed the Andes, bought rubber, came down 

 the Madeira and got it through to New York at a profit. Not 

 only that, but he engaged to build a Madeira-Mamore railway. 

 Others got concessions, to be sure, and he did not, but it was 

 not owing to his lack of ambition. 



When the time came for our departure from Manaos. tlic 

 steamboat company allowed us to go down on a cargo boat. .At 

 first the officials strongly advised our waiting a week for one of 

 the regular passenger boats, picturing the discomforts ot a ves- 

 sel not fitted for passengers, but finally capitulated. 



One very interesting furmality that we were obliged to go 

 through bctore leaving Manaos was the payment of a head tax 

 amounting to So for permission to leave the country. I tried to 

 get the official to make it J'i'i.o!^. but got not the slightest en- 

 couragement. 1 was further fjl)lige(l to deposit with the steam- 

 ship company $50. to In- turned ii\ir to the hospital board in 



Interior ok an "Ig.m'o." 

 I In (tie Punts river valley. I 



