zon and Rio Negro,” and Captain Maury, in his book “The 
Amazon and the Atlantic Coast of South America,” show them- 
selves so enthusiastic over the climate of Amazonas and recom- 
mend it “as one of the healthiest and mildest in the world.” That 
easy enthusiasm is not so good for us as the competent French 
engineer, Mr. Paul Le Cointe’s opinion, after many years in the 
northern part of Brazil. Thus he expresses himself: 
“The Amazonia, an immense tableland slightly concave, situ- 
ated entirely in the tropics, crossed by rivers of colossal dimen- 
sions, with lakes and swamps, the remains of the original water 
basin, badly separated by modern alluvium land, covered with 
impenetrable forests from which emerge here and there some 
plains, ought to, have a specially hot, damp and unhealthy 
climate. 
“That is the reputation which it has enjoyed for a long time 
-and which has frightened away the European immigration; but 
it is not deserved in such an absolute manner; as a hot country 
is perhaps on the contrary the less deadly for the settler as 
well as for the traveler.” 
THE AMAZON AS RUBBER PRODUCER 
It is indeed very difficult if not absolutely impossible to limit 
the rubber producing region of Amazonas. In almost the whole 
of the vast territory of that State there are found rubber trees 
and where they do not grow, they certainly can be successfully 
planted. Over large tracts of lands on the banks of rivers not 
navigable, there are extensive rubber forests not explored on 
account of lack of population. 
That exuberance of the Amazonian flora, that arrangement of 
nature to furnish resources to the rubber extractor for many 
years, kept him away from any other occupation except that of 
raising the arm and wounding the tree of fortune in order to 
obtain prosperity. There was no necessity of planting that which 
the open road of the forest presents at each step; also why 
worry with a view to obtaining any other process of securing 
the “hevea brasiliensis” when its milk in the primitive state is 
obtained at the lowest price of exploitation and cultivation, pre- 
serving all the excellent qualities of the rubber? © 
The presence of competitors in the world’s market, more 
than the damage caused to the health by the smoking process 
of coagulation, is the reason to establish new exploitation. The 
rubber plantation is now being conducted perhaps without obey- 
ing the scientific criterion, but more in the shape of facilitating 
the gathering of the latex. 
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