38 
Tt is obvious that the making of the rubber into thin “ sheets,’ 
instead of biscuits, is of adva vantage, for it gives facilities for 
: of pré 
r fou 
which will yield more nearly such a product as the trade desires ? 
TRADE. 
“Pernambuco biscuits” are large rectangular cakes of a reddish- 
brown colour outside, but bright rose-coloured inside, with a 
peculiar sweet scent, full of cavities containing a solution of alum, 
and usually with marks of its exudation on the surface. In the 
working up of the rubber, a loss, sometimes of as much as 40 to 
60 per cent., occurs. The caoutchouc is but little elastic, hardens 
a 
nd for such rubber is small, and due chiefly to 
its pleasing colour ; and the price in consequence is but half that 
P. 
ecently, however, the price of Mangabeira rubber has 
advanced by reason n of the improvement in the purity, and on 
account of its great suitability, when pure, for certain ses. 
n consequence, the disparity between the price of the best sorts 
and that of Para rubber is much diminished. At the end of last 
year, a kilogramme (2 lbs. 3 ozs.) of the best Mangabeira rubber 
guard against adulteration by addition of iron or stones put in to 
make weight, pieces of rubber only 3-4 in. thick and 2 ft. long by 
10 ins. broad, the so-called **sheets"' of commerce, are welcome in 
the trade. 
Of recent years, the exploitation of this source of rubber has 
a considerable extension. And, while the intelligent 
collectors, who start from Bahia and work toward the interior, 
have only tap mature trees, improvident a collectors, 
making their own profit out of the pressing demand of the time, 
have in many places mischiev vously drawn on the supply and 
threatened its continua 
The chief me je expen of Mangabeira rubber are Bahia 
and Pernambuco. A large supply is brought down the river Sao 
bene tre and "i pani and from this town, in 1889, 134 tons 
exported ; in 1899, 4 362 bales, to the value of £22, $26; and 
m 1893, 3,293 bales, to the value of £20,362. From Pernambuco 
were exported, in 1896, 54 tons, to the value of £1,800.* A small 
amount of caoutchouc from the Province of Matto Grosso (prob- 
ably —À rubber) is exported down the Parana through 
Paraguay, great quantities from Minas Geraes are shipped 
through Rio. de Sadiéiro. 
* Probably an error for £18,000. 
