FIRST LETTER. 



CROSSING THE ATLANTIC ENGLISH MANUFACTURERS AND CEYLON RUBBER ON 

 BOARD THE HIMALAYA STROMBOLI PORT SAID AND THE SUEZ CANAL THE RED 

 SEA AND ADEN BEAUTIFUL CEYLON AT THE GALLE FACE HOTEL SINGALESE, 

 TAMILS AND CHINESE QUAINT CUSTOMS DIRECTOR WILLIS, OF PERADENIYA AND 

 HENERATGODA THE OLDEST PLANTATIONS OF HCVEA IN A BULLOCK ''HACKERY" 

 TO HENERATGODA GARDENS. 



TO those who are interested as to why I chose the Leyland liner, 

 Devonian, to carry me across the Atlantic at the beginning of my 

 journey toward the Far East, I beg to explain that she is a big, 

 roomy, seaworthy craft of 11,000 tons, that there were only six passengers 

 all told, and although she carried some eight hundred cattle, they did not 

 appear on the deck, or at table, nor would one have dreamed of their 

 existence, once they were driven abdard. The ten days that were occu- 

 pied in crossing, spent chiefly on the promenade deck playing quoits with 

 the ship's doctor, put me in fine trim for the brief view of Liverpool and 

 London that I had before the alleged train de luxe bore me to Marseilles, 

 to join the P. and O. steamship, the Himalaya. My stop in England was 

 only long enough to allow me to see a few of the leading rubber manu- 

 facturers, and get their ideas as to the value of the new Para rubber that 

 Ceylon planters are sending to that market. 



One who has probably used as much of this rubber, or more than 

 any other, summarized his experience as follows : "It shrinks on the aver- 

 age about 1.4 per cent. I use it successfully in all grades of fine work, 

 including cut sheet, but do not like it for cements. It stands all tests 

 after vulcanization compression, stretch and return, oils, etc., just as 

 well as fine Para, and is perfectly satisfactory." 



Another detailed the results of his own experiments thus : "This is a 

 general summing up of the practical results, obtained from approximately 

 two tons of rubber, from about twenty different plantations. The irregu- 

 larity in quality is very great, varying from tough elastic gum, apparently 

 equal to Manaos Para, to soft, sticky short rubber, with little more elas- 



