THE HISTORY OF RUBBER 17 



About 1900, however, a competitor gave signs of life 

 in the cradle of the Middle East. The public knew 

 little about that competitor, and cared less ; the experts 

 with very few exceptions derided it. But a few years 

 later both the experts and the public began to realize 

 that, for the first time in its triumphant career, wild 

 Para had a really fearsome rival. This adversary 

 is commonly known as Plantation Rubber ; as a matter 

 of fact, it is Cultivated Para, which has made such a 

 determined fight for supremacy in the raw rubber 

 market. This is indeed a case of child rising up against 

 parent, for the Cultivated Para is all being obtained 

 from trees that owe their existence to seeds taken from 

 the Brazilian forests. The struggle has brought about 

 a revolution in the Rubber World ; all of you must have 

 heard of at least one of the stirring events to which 

 it has already given rise — the Rubber Boom in the 

 spring of 1910. 



CHAPTER IV 



WE VISIT A SERINGAL 



We want to see for ourselves the way the present-day 

 rubber-gatherers in Brazil do their work, and the kind 

 of life they lead. So we have made a long journey by 

 boat up one of the tributaries of the River Amazon 

 to the landing-stage for a tjrpical rubber-gatherers' 

 village. 



We step ashore straight into the forest, and are 

 warmly welcomed by a group of working men, who 

 inquire eagerly for the latest news from anywhere, 



a 



