201 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1, 1915. 



The Editor's Book Table. 



THE LOWER AMAZON. A NARRATIVE OF EXPLORATIONS IN 

 the Little Known Regions of the State of Para, on the Lower Amazon, 

 with a Record of I Kcavations on M iraji Island, at the 



Mouth of the Amazon River, and G R 



ntry. By Algot Lange. [8vo, pp \6l with 6 maps and 109 

 illustrations. 191-4. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and I ondon.] 



THER] uin< entertainment in this volume of explora- 



tion and observation in a part of eastern Brazil which 

 includes within comparatively small area some of the 

 best and some of the least known parts of the country. This 

 takes in the city of Para and the hinterland of that region 



Mr. Lange makes a sweeping division of Brazilians into two 

 lasses those who wear shoes and those who do not — and he 

 gives his hearty preference to the latter. Sunn- ,,f his anecdotes 

 illustrate the extremes of these classes Only a few hours' 

 journey from Para 

 he was entertain; d 

 by a rubber worker 

 who ceremonially 

 put <m a shirt in 

 honor of his gu< st 

 but deliberately 

 took it off and 

 hung it on a bush 

 when he went out 

 to work. A little 

 later, when Mr. 

 Lange had return- 

 ed to Para, he was 

 refused admittance 

 to a street car lie- 

 cause he did not 

 have on a necktie. 

 Of the high societj 

 of Para, with its 

 "South American 

 Paris," with "its 

 two blocks of elec- 

 tric glare" and its 

 taxicabs. w h i c h 

 whiz five or six 

 blocks and then 

 whiz back because 

 there is no road 

 on which to whiz 

 any further." Mr. 

 Lange has opin- 

 ions not at all flat- 

 tering; but for the 



"Caboclos," or half-breeds, who form the working class of the 

 interior, he has unbounded regard. In this he is following the 

 opinion of the best ethnologists, and his descriptions of the people 

 and the reception they gave him show them in a very attractive 

 light. We have had descriptions, often and again, of the rubber- 

 worker and his melancholy rounds tapping the trees; but this 

 book takes us into the rubber-worker's home and shows him 

 as a human being, describing not only his work but his econ- 

 omies, his household furnishings or lack of them, and his di- 

 versions. 



Prices of all civilized requirements are enormous, but still 

 they have suffered a urcat decline since the days of three-dollar 

 rubber. In this connection it is not inappropriate to express 

 again the opinion, more than once given in this magazine, that, 

 no matter how low the price is brought by plantation rubber, 

 a certain amount of the Brazilian forest product will still be 

 gathered. Much of the cost has been in the wholly absurd 

 and artificial cost of the articles of commerce sent to the rubber 



A Young Giboia. This Young Boa Con- 

 strictor Soon Grew Tame and Playful. 



forests in exchange for the district's one product and, as the 

 prici of rubber declines, the worker's money will go further, 

 his simple requirements will still be met, and he will still gather 

 rubber. 



The description of the flooded districts is particularly inter- 

 esting, but the references to animal life .ire scanty and unsatis- 

 fying, lie states that lie is anxious to gel a big snake-skin 

 to show certain doubting friends in Xew York that there are 

 some snakes along the Amazon. His helpers brought him a 

 skin eleven feet long, but he says that he wants one five times 

 that length. Mr. Lange is evidently not one of those who want 

 but little ben below nor want that little long Mr. Lange 

 visited with one tribe of Indians where the men are entirely 

 mule and states that during his stay he adopted the national 

 costume, save for one unimportant detail. Presumably, he wore 

 his eye-glasses. And this, be it remembered, was but a short 

 journey from the town where he could not board a street car 

 for lack of a necktie. 



The author has brought with him to Xew York a large 

 collection of ancient pottery, which is, after all. more informing 

 than snake-skins. A large number of the pieces an shown in 

 illustration. The chapter on the products and prospects of 

 Brazil does not, of course, make any claim to be an exhaustive 

 treatment of so vast a subject. An appendix gives a vocabulary 

 of the Indians with whom the author visited. An index- 

 glossary is a helpful feature for the average reader. 



[NSULATION AND DESIGN OF ELECTRICAL WINDINGS. BY" 

 A. P. M. Fleming, M. I. E. E., and R. Johnson, A. M. I. E. E. Long- 

 mans. Green & Co., London and New Y'ork. [8v< 224 [ages, cloth 

 covers. ] 



This is a very thorough treatment of the subject from an 

 electrical point of view. In this day of high voltages and 

 larger and more costly units a book of this sort is timely. The 

 authors in the preface mention that insulation is the vulnerable 

 part of electrical machinery. This is unfortunately true, and 

 manufacturers and users often have suffered from unreliable 

 insulation. The authors, who have had many years' practical 

 experience in connection with insulating problems, have covered 

 the field very thoroughly. To do this they have given the under- 

 lying principles covering insulation, and pointed out methods 

 by which insulation can be carried out with precision. The 

 volume is adequately illustrated by diagrams, and has a very- 

 complete and excellent index. 



hi. RUBBER-CULTTJR EX DE RUBBER-HANDEL VAN NEDER 

 landsch-Indie. By W. J. van de Leemkolk. Ruycrok & Co., Batavia, 

 1914. [Paper cover, 48 pages.] 



The book is a reprint of a lecture read during the first rubber 

 congress in Batavia, in October last, and covers the whole field 

 of rubber planting and rubber trade in the Dutch possessions 

 of India. Hevea was introduced in Dutch India in the year 

 1876. Further experiments were made, beside Hevea, with 

 Castilloa elastica, Fiats elastica and different kinds ,,f Manihot. 

 In 1913 there existed 550 enterprises interested in the production 

 of rubber in Dutch Indies, of which 3i2 were situated in Java. 

 The area under rubber culture extended in 1906 in Java to 

 25.000 acres, but had reached in 1913 245.000 acres. In Sumatra 

 there was in the same time an increase from 6,000 acres to 

 240.000. The lecture gives, further, a description of the situation 

 in the different parts of the Dutch Indies, and contains a large 

 quantity of statistical information, which is especially useful, as 

 those statistics go deeply into details. The little book, which 

 seems to be printed for private circulation only, deserves to be 

 read, as it contains in a small space an enormpus amount of 



