326 



THE INDIA RUBBER COUNTRY. 



province ; but when she applied for permission to make further surveys, 

 she was sternly refused by the government of Rio Janeiro. 



I think it would cost a steamer a year of uninterrupted labor to make 

 a tolerably correct chart of this estuary. 



At this point we turned into a small creek that penetrated the right 

 bank, and ran for days through channels varying from fifty to five hun- 

 dred yards in width, between innumerable islands. This is the India- 

 rubber country. The shores of the islands were all low ; and, indeed, 

 we seldom saw the land at all, the trees on the banks generally standing 

 in the water. 



We stopped (April 3) at one of the establishments on the river for 

 making, or rather for buying, India-rubber. The house was built of 

 light poles, and on piles to keep it out of the water, which, at this time, 

 flowed under and around it. The owner had a shop containing all the 

 necessaries of life, and such articles of luxury as were likely to attract 

 the fancy of the Indian gatherers of the rubber. It was strange, and 

 very agreeable, to see flour-barrels marked Richmond, and plain and 

 striped cottons from Lowell and Saco, with English prints, pewter ear 

 and finger rings, combs, small guitars, cheese, gin, and aguadiente, in 

 this wild and secluded-looking spot. 



This house was a palace to the rude shanty which the seringero, or 

 gatherer of the rubber, erects for a temporary shelter near the scene of 

 his labors. 



The owner of the house told me that the season for gathering the 

 rubber, or seringa, as it is here called, was from July to January. The 

 tree gives equally well at all times ; but the work cannot be prosecuted 

 when the river is full, as the whole country is then under water. Some, 

 however, is made at this time, for I saw a quantity of it in this man's 

 house, which was evidently freshly made. 



The process of making it is as follows : A longitudinal gash is made 

 in the bark of the tree with a very narrow hatchet or tomahawk ; a 

 wedge of wood is inserted to keep the gash open, and a small clay cup 

 is stuck to the tree beneath the gash. The cups may be stuck as close 

 together as possible around the tree. In four or five hours the milk 

 has ceased to run, and each wound has given from three to five table- 

 spoonfuls. The gatherer then collects it from the cups, takes it to his 

 rancho, pours it into an earthen vessel, and commences the operation of 

 forming it into shapes and smoking it. This must be done at once, as 

 the milk soon coagulates. 



A fire is made on the ground of the seed of nuts of a palm-tree, of 

 which there are two kinds : one called urucari, the size of a pigeon's 



