Cost of Productions. 373 



in one steam-saw-mill, one brick and tile establishment, and 

 one soap-factorj. Masons and carpenters get from $2 50 

 to $5 a day ; pilots, $100 a month ; and physicians, $5 a 

 visit. The daily Oommercio do Amazonas costs $10 a 

 year. Hotels, $2 per day ; i. e., for a room where you may 

 hang your hammock, and two meals a day. The following 

 prices, current in 1873, will serve to illustrate life a thou- 

 sand miles up the Amazons : Cacao, $2 20 an arroba ; ton- 

 ka-beans, 20 cents per kilogram; puxuri (nutmegs), 90 

 cents per kilogram ; guarana, 68 cents per kilogram ; Bra- 

 zil-nuts, 5 cents per kilogram; copaiba-oil, 70 cents per 

 kilogram; fish-glue, 90 cents per kilogram; dried meat, 

 21 cents per kilogram; dried pirarucii fish, 23 cents per 

 kilogram ; vanilla, 45 cents per kilogram ; indigo, $2 per 

 kilogram ; sarsaparilla in bundle, 80 cents per kilogram ; 

 tucum thread, $1 per kilogram; tallow, refined, 90 cents 

 per kilogram ; rubber, from 56 to 85 cents per kilo- 

 gram ; rubber, in liquid, $2 53 per kilogram ; aguardente 

 (cane rum), from 15 to 20 cents a litre ; tapioca, 20 cents 

 a litre; piassaba in the rough, 12 cents per kilogram; 

 piassaba cord, 50 cents a centimetre ; piassaba brooms, 

 $1 60 a dozen ; estopa, or bast, 9 cents per kilogram ; hides, 

 26 cents per kilogram ; cotton hammocks, from $5 to $14 

 each ; tucum hammocks, feathered, $45 ; cedar logs, $1 

 per metre ; cedar or itaiiba boards, sixteen feet long, eight 

 inches wide, unplaned, $18 a dozen; cabinet -wood in 

 boards, 45 cents a metre ; steamer fuel, $20 a thousand 

 sticks, each weighing, on the average, fifteen pounds ; na- 

 tive brick (8x6x2 inches) and tiles, from $50 to $75 a 

 hundred ; at Para, $35. The ordinary red sandstone rock, 

 which abounds in the vicinity, unworked, 75 cents a cubic 

 foot. This last item shows the high value of labor. So 

 the wood used by the steamers is costly, considering that 

 the forest is free to all. The introduction of steamers has 



