July i, igio.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



341 



RUBBER LIGHTERS AND FRONTAGE OF THE CITY OF PARA. 



Para, Manaos and the Amazon. 



By the Editor of ''The India Rubber World." 



FOURTH LETTER. 

 The Life of the Rubber Collector and His Relation to the Seringal Owner. — 

 A Visit to Oncas Island. — Dr. Huber and the Musee Goeldi. — Alleged Perils of 

 the Amazon which Do Not Always Materialize on a Trip Upriver. — The Ap- 

 proach to Manaos. 



THE first thing the laborers on a seringal are set at, when a 

 new season begins, is the cleaning of the old estradas. 

 Five or six months in a tropical forest bring great changes. 

 Huge trees have fallen across the paths, dragging others in their 

 fall and often making impassable barriers around which a way 

 must lie cut. Vines and young trees have sprung up and grown 

 enormously, and everything that nature could do to efface man's 

 work has been done. So that the cleaning of the estradas is no 

 light task. It means not only reopening the path, but cutting 

 a circle about two feet wide around each rubber tree, so that 

 there will be room to work. Then comes the opening of new 

 estradas, if there are laborers enough to work them. And next 

 in order is the tapping. 



This starts very early in the morning. The seringueiro rises at 

 4 o'clock, boils some coffee which he hurriedly drinks, and, pro- 

 vided with a machadinha, or little tapping ax, and several hun- 

 dred tin cups, starts barefooted for his estrada. When he reaches 

 the first rubber tree he attaches as many cups as the size of the 

 trees warrants, usually in a circle as high up as he can conve- 

 niently cut. These cups are attached directly under the cuts, and 

 catch the latex as it flows out. There is a great difference in 

 trees as far as the production of latex goes. Some bleed freely, 

 others reluctantly; some furnish thick, creamy latex, others thin 

 latex, and occasionally one gives none at all. 



Although alone in the jungle that shelters many wild beasts 

 and venomous snakes, the rubber worker is very rarely molested. 

 The wild creatures all get out of the way of man when they can. 

 To be sure, if the tree tapper should leave his pile of tin cups 

 for a short time, a trouble seeking monkey might swing down 

 from the branches above, lift the stack, and throw it high in the 

 air just for the delight of seeing the cups scatter. 



From tree to tree goes the rubber tapper until all on his 

 estrada have their girdle of cups. He now discards the tapping 

 tool and, taking some vessel, very frequently an empty kerosene 

 can, begins the collection of the latex. His first visit is to the 

 tree first tapped, where the latex has probably ceased running, 

 and the cups may be a quarter, a half, or nearly full, depending 

 on the productiveness of the tree. By the time he has finished 



this round and collected all of the latex it is 9 or 10 o'clock, and 

 he is ready for breakfast. This he prepares himself and it usually 

 consists of dried beef and beans, always accompanied by farinha. 



THE SMOKING OF RUBBER. 



The rubber worker is now ready to do the day's smoking. On 

 the fire smoldering in his hut he heaps some of the heavy oily 

 nuts that are borne abundantly by the "urucuri" palm (Attalea 

 excelsa). Over this, if he has it, he places a funnel that is like 

 a truncated cone open at each end, part of the lower edge being 

 cut away to make a draught. Until recently these cones were 

 made of earthenware and were heavy and rather fragile. To-day 

 the ainadores supply them in sheet iron with handles on the side. 

 These are much more portable and not breakable, but the serin- 

 gueiros, that is, the old expert ones, detest them. They complain 

 that the iron throws off so much heat that their work is much 

 more disagreeable than when they used clay cones. 



When the smoke is coming thick and hot from the funnel, the 

 seringueiro winds a bit of freshly coagulated rubber about a 

 piece of wood shaped something like a broom handle, and thor- 

 oughly dries it in the smoke. Then he dips this in the latex 

 and holds it again over the smoke until that film is dried. Over 

 and over again he repeats this process, the ball growing in size 

 with every dipping. Where large balls are to be made that can- 

 not easily be handled, a rest is made by driving two forked 

 sticks into the ground with a cross piece connecting them. In 

 the middle of this cross piece is a loop of 'bush rope into which 

 one end of the pole holding the rubber ball is thrust. The 

 seringueiro, grasping the other end, swings the ball over the 

 smoke and turns it easily. As a further assistance a loop of 

 bush rope coming down from the roof of the hut helps the laborer 

 to hold his end of the smoking pole. 



At the beginning of the smoking process the core of the pelle 

 is dipped into the latex, drained, and the film smoked. As the 

 ball grows larger and heavier the latex is carefully poured over 

 it as it turns. Much of the latex coagulates in the air. This is 

 in the form of thin films on the sides of the vessels, drippings in 

 various parts of the camp, and latex that started to coagulate 

 before there was time to smoke it. This forms the grade known 

 as coarse Para. 



Day after day until Saturday the seringueiro pursues his mo- 

 notonous task. On that' day, he, with the half dozen others or 



