KINDRED PRODUCTS TO RUBBER 43 



closely resemble. At present, they are only known 

 to a few explorers, the balata-bleeders, a few seekers 

 after gold and diamonds, and odd travellers who like 

 to get away from the beaten tracks. In all my wan- 

 derings East and West, I have had few such delightful 

 experiences, none more interesting and novel, than my 

 trip to these forests. Yet, although they occupy by 

 far the greater part of a British Colony, which is about 

 equal in size to England, not one Briton in a thousand 

 knows anything about them. Indeed, so little does the 

 Mother Country appreciate the importance of owning 

 a part, although only a comparatively small part, of 

 the rapidly developing Continent of South America, that 

 very few Britons know British Guiana by name even, 

 and the majority of these imagine it is the same country 

 as British New Guinea. 



Most of the balata-bleeders are niggers, the present- 

 day natives of the Colony. The life they lead is rough 

 and solitary, very much like that of a seringueiro. 



The balata-gathering season begins in the latter part 

 of May, but weeks before this many of the labourers 

 have to set out on the long journey to the particular 

 part of the forest where their work lies. They are 

 employed, under contract, by companies who hold 

 licences to collect balata from such or such tracts of 

 the forest, called "grants." All employees are paid 

 according to the results they can show in solid balata, 

 so much for every pound of the material ; but they 

 must go where they are sent to find it, and getting 

 there is such a difficult and trying business that work 

 may well be considered to begin with the journey to 

 the grants. 



Balata trees grow wild throughout the Colony. 



