79 
“The internal water communication afforded by the river 
mazon and its numerous branches is so great that railroads and 
other means of transport are hardly needed. Ocean steamers can 
reach Manaos, which is about 1,000 miles from the sea, at all times 
of the year. There is a regular service of ocean steamers plying 
during high river as far as Iquitos, a port of Peru, which is 2,200 
miles from the mouth of the Amazons.” 
Mr. Churchill continues : “The great demand for rubber and 
t ttrac 
It follows that the rich lands of the Amazon are practically 
untouched, except to tap the wild rubber trees growing upon 
them. Nearly all the necessaries of life are imported from other 
countries, 
The town of Para or Belem, the headquarters of the great 
rubber industry of the Amazon region, is on the right bank of the 
river Guama, and about 100 miles from the sea. 
It is not on the banks of the Amazons, but is connected with 
n, and is the 
emporium where is transacted the largest india-rubber business 
in the world. ; 
According to Mr. Churchill, during the year 1897, the distribu- 
tion of Amazonian rubber from Para was as follows :— 
Tons. 
United Kingdom S $e E 8,843 
Franee ... TE He di. lis 2,010 
Haly x Sid au Gi ʻi 6 
United States of America ... 40321586 
Tot a: Eoi 22,544 
LOCALITY, SOIL, AND CLIMATE. 
Para is in about south latitude 1?, but the district of the same 
name extends over a vast fo i o the south and we 
For the remaining six months of the year very little falls,i but 
there are fine days in the wet season and occasional showers in 
