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end in May or June, torrents of rain are then reported to fall for several 

 days in succession, after which, the weather moderates for a brief space. 

 According to some statements there are occasional years in which hardly 

 any rain falls. This assertion concurs with the aspect presented by the 

 country in general. The daily temperature on board the ship ranged 

 from 82° to 85° F., but inland it is often probably 90°. The localities 

 traversed by me nowhere seemed to be elevated more than 200 feet 

 above the sea." At Pacatuba, " the general forest was tolerably high, 

 but the sparse small foliage did not afford much shade from the fierce 

 rays of the sun. The soil was in places a sort of soft sandstone or 

 gravel which was bound up in the most extraordinary manner. Neither 

 grass nor weeds grow among this underwood, and there was an entire 

 absence of ferns, mosses, and other plants." In another place somewhat 

 further from the coast the traveller shortly after entering the bush-like 

 forest " came on a large tract of land covered by dense masses of grey 

 granite, some of which might be fifty tons or more in weight. These 

 had been broken where they lay, and were the result of a volcanic 

 explosion. Bounded masses of the same rock also cropped cut in many 



places Many good-sized rubber trees were growing in the spaces 



between these granite masses The situation was very dry, but 



no doubt some seedlings had sprung up, which, owing to the numerous 

 thickets of shrubs, were not perceived." 



Best districts in Jamaica. — Considering the character of the country 

 in which the Ceara rubber tree is a native, the most likely 

 districts in the Island for its success in yielding rubber are the 

 Liguanea plain, Palisadoes, sea-coast parts of western St Thomas- 

 in-the-East, southern portions of Clarendon and St. Catherine, districts 

 round Black Biver, and the country along the sea-coast of St. James 

 and Trelawny. 



Collecting the Rubber. — Mr. Cross says that the system of collecting 

 is "an operation of a very simple description. On commencing to work 

 the collector takes with him ajstout knife and a handful of twigs to serve 

 as a broom. Arriving at a tree any loose stones or dust are swept from 

 the ground around the base, and some large leaves are laid down to re- 

 ceive the droppings of milk which trickle down. Some do not go to the 

 trouble of sweeping the ground or laying down leaves, for which reason 

 the milk adheres to sand, dust, decayed leaves and other impurities. The 

 outer surface of the bark of the trunk is pared or sliced off to a height 

 of four or five feet. The milk then exudes and runs down in many 

 tortuous courses, some of it ultimately falling on the ground. After 

 several days the juice becomes dry and solid, and is then pulled off in 

 strings and rolled up in balls or put into bags in loose masses. 



W. B. Lamont (of Ceylon) states : — 



" It is only in the dry season, when the tree is leafless, and the growth 

 at a stand, that a satisfactory result can be obtained, in the way of har- 

 vesting. The plan of obtaining the rubber that my experiments led up 

 to, was, as soon as the leaves begin to fall, remove the cuter bark in 

 vertical slips of not more than two inches wide, and not less than four 

 inches apart. The tender inner bark thus exposed to the sun breaks out 

 in something like running sores, from which the rubber slowly exudes 

 and drips on the surface as fast as discharged. 



