CURING AND PREPARATION OF RUBBER 99 



the use of steam-launches, flat-bottomed boats, and 

 canoes, for this purpose ; in connection with a large pro- 

 portion of estates water carriage is impossible, especi- 

 ally during the dry season, from July to October, and 

 the employment of pack animals is necessary. In these 

 circumstances the cost of transport becomes a heavy 

 item, for the traffic must be taken over the rough jungle 

 tracks doing duty for roads, and nowhere is resort to 

 wheeled vehicles a possibility. The value of mules for 

 transportation work varies from 35 to 40 per head, 

 and even at that high price the supply is limited ; 

 moreover, the climate and grasses are not well suited 

 to either mules or horses, and consequently the mor- 

 tality is exceptionally heavy. These additional ex- 

 penses add approximately another halfpenny per 

 pound to the cost of the rubber, bringing the total 

 average charge to one penny per pound for land and 

 river transport to Manaos or Para. 



The cost of freight on inward cargo is at a higher 

 rate, especially in regard to any description of fine 

 goods, steamship owners relying on this source of 

 income for earning profits. In the years of prosperity 

 following the rubber boom of 1909, the question of 

 freight rates attracted very little attention ; but with the 

 fall in prices this factor has become one of the most 

 serious problems in the situation, and it has resulted 

 in scores of steamers being dismantled and laid up at 

 Manaos and Para, on account of the diminution in the 

 quantity of imported merchandise. 



Bolivian rubber is subjected to the abnormally high 

 charges made by the Madeira- Marmore* Railway Com- 

 pany, but in this connection a reduction in rates of at 



