May 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



259 



\ II. LACE ON THE PaRA RiVKK. 



little community that was once a garrison town where fifty Dutch 

 soldiers held a great force of negroes and Indians in check. Here 

 we took on wood and water for our engine. Then on, by little 

 cassava fields, banana and cocoanut plantations, to Kwakoegro, 

 where we had a "twenty-minute" stop which lasted an hour. Dur- 

 ing this wait we walked over to the Saramacca river to see the 

 great hardwood pier where much river freight is handled. Here 

 railroad and waterway come into open competition and the latter 

 always wins. Passengers and freight from the gold fields come 

 down the railroad to this point because they have no other means 

 of transportation. Then they transfer to take a five day boat 

 trip to Paramaribo rather than a five hour train journey, because 

 it is cheaper. Not that the railroad rates are exorbitant or pro- 

 hibitive, but that the water rates are phenomenally low. Besides, 

 any negro gold digger who did in five hours what could be done 

 in five days would be outraging every procrastinating instinct 

 that makes him what he is, or rather what he is not. If the 

 river boats were really alive to the desire of their patrons they 

 would arrange that the trip take twenty days instead of five. 



A great many things along the way puzzled us more or less, 

 but we figured them out the best we could without asking too 

 many questions. We wondered, to be sure, why a man should 

 label his hen coop "Te Koop," as it was easy to see what it was. 

 It was only when we saw a fine Dutch bungalow thus labeled 

 that we asked questions, and learned that "Te Koop" meant "For 

 Sale" and not "The Coop." 



It was along near here somewhere that there were great cot- 

 ton plantations some fifty years ago. They were abandoned, 

 however, as the planters found more profitable use for their labor 

 in sugar and coffee. The reason for the long wait at this station 

 became apparent when a white-clad figure appeared far down the 

 track, and on nearer approach turned out to be an engineer whose 

 duty it was to patrol the track in a handcar run by gasoline. His 

 motor had failed, and with visions of train wrecks and dire dis- 

 aster to spur him on, he had run a mile through the blazing 

 sun to save us. As we often reached the frightful speed of 

 20 miles an hour and averaged more than 10, and, moreover, 

 it was broad daylight and the track was a straightaway, the 

 peril was imminent and his Carnegie medal will doubtless reach 

 him in due time — by river boat. 



This railroad, although running through the bush (and to 

 those who are not familiar with the term "bush" I will explain 

 that it means jungle or forest often of the heaviest growth), has 

 many of the accompaniments of the better class of tropical rail- 

 roads the world over. The grades were easy, the roadbed nearly 

 perfect, the stations clean and orderly, the officials courteous, 

 and there were no offensive loungers. Oftentimes the station 

 platforms were crowded with passengers and their families, even 

 down to the third and fourth generation, but they were either 

 there on business, as respectful sightseers, or as an enthusiastic 

 backer of a friend or relative who had secured money enough 

 to pay for a twenty-mile ride and courage enough to walk back. 



We dropped two cars at Kwakoegro. A little beyond the sta- 

 tion we began to run into hilly country and passed through oc- 

 casional cuts that showed the red and yellow clays, some beds 



' A View of the Upper Surinam f.. 



of kaolin and ledges of sandstone. Balata trees began to be in 

 evidence, and after they were once noted were very easy to rec- 

 ognize, as they present a different appearance from almost any 

 of the hard woods of which these forests are composed. The 

 trees grow to a great height, oftentimes with 60 feet of 

 straight trunk before the branches appear. The bark is a gray- 

 black in color, rough in texture and at a distance looks not un- 

 like the American ash. The leaf is very much like the Ficus 

 elastica, while the tree crown with its many spreading branches 

 has much the appearance of the white oak. Many of the trees, or 

 more accurately, some of the trees, had been tapped, but very 

 many of them had not been touched. We saw very few birds 

 or animals of any kind — a few hawks, macaws and parrots, one 

 small alligator and big bushspider were all — and soon we came 

 to Guyana placer. Here most of the passengers left us, as they 

 were bound for the gold fields, which lay but a short distance 

 away. They were greeted by a crowd of miners, white and 

 black, who had come down to meet the train and to collect sup- 

 plies, letters, and whatever was brought up to them from the 

 outside world. Further on we ran close to some of the placers, 

 one in particular where a huge dredge was being set up, an at- 

 tempt to get the gold out with a bit of American hustle, instead 

 of the slow panning by hand, generally indulged in. 



I ought to say that our train was now a special, consisting of 

 one car and the engine, a courtesy that the superintendent of 

 the road paid our party that we might penetrate into the interior 

 as far as the rail went. So we went on, past deserted balata 

 camps (the tree was fruiting and the latex does not run then, so 

 the gatherers say), through railroad camps that a year ago were 

 humming with life, but now abandoned, stopping at various 

 placer stations, and we finally reached the terminus of the road in 

 a pouring shower. We had planned to go out into the bush here 

 and see the gold mining at close range, but it was too wet, so we 

 lunched comfortablv on board and started back. 



The Special Train. 



