Gums, Resins, 



304 



I April 1908, 



Sapiums, i.e., their rubber-yielding capa- 

 bilities. It may, however, be useful to 

 bring together and to summarise as far as 

 possible the facts that have been ascer- 

 tained. 



DISCOVERY OF THE RUBBER. 



In an official report to the Government 

 on some of the India-rubber and Gutta- 

 percha trees of British Guiana, published 

 in 1883 and reprinted in " Timehri " in 

 the same year, Mr. Jenman describes his 

 first acquaintance with Sapium rubber. 

 His attention was attracted to it by in- 

 formation received from Mr. (now His 

 Excellency) Sir Everard im Thurn, 

 Governor of Fiji, who had seen in the 

 coreal of some Carabisi Indians two or 

 three small balls of india-rubber which 

 were exceedingly elastic. Mr. Jenmau 

 sought out the collector and induced him 

 to point out the trees whence it was 

 obtained. I will quote Mr. Jenman's 

 description. 



l< The trees were large individuals, four 

 or five feet in diameter of trunk, and 

 one hundred and twenty or more feet 

 high. Their trunks were long, straight 

 and unbranched for sixty or seventy feet 

 from the ground. The lowest six feet 

 of one had been scarred, and from the 

 scars the milk had run and was dried in 

 tears or strings several inches long on 

 the bark. Most of the congealed rubber 

 was, however, contained in the fissures 

 made by the cutlass cuts, from which 

 places it was rather hard to extract it 

 because of the tenacity with which it 

 held to the inner bark from which it had 

 oozed. I gathered and made a ball, 

 following the Indian plan of winding it 

 up like twine, of what was on this trunk. 

 They sear the trunk and then leave it, 

 the milk oozes from the wounds, trickles 

 down the bark and coagulates and be- 

 comes dry in a few days. My guide said 

 it took three days to dry, but I should 

 have supposed a shorter time might 

 accomplish the change, the little rivulets 

 are so very thin. That which was in the 

 old cuts- cuts probably a year or more 

 old — had turned black, but that in those 

 recently made was nearly milk-white. 

 The Indian boys, who are perhaps 

 accustomed to play with the balls — as I 

 noticed from several which they brought 

 me they never make them large— stripped 

 the dry strings very dexterously from 

 the bark, taking good care to extract 

 the larger portion to which I have 

 alluded partly concealed in the incisions, 

 and, stretching it with a good deal of 

 tension, wound it up. These balls have 

 wonderful elasticity and bounded with 

 very little impulsion several feet off the 

 ground. The rubber, too, seems exceed- 

 ingly tenacious and strong. This method 



of collecting is that pursued in Ceara< 

 the province of Brazil which produces 

 Manihot glaziovii. It is very economical 

 of time, for it saves the tedious operation 

 of catching the milk in a vessel as it 

 issues from the wound, which is the most 

 bothersome of all the operations. The 

 principal objection to it is that the 

 rubber becomes soiled by the dirt 

 adhering to the bark, a little of which 

 it retains, and no doubt this would 

 deteriorate its market value ; but this 

 cause of depreciation might be reduced 

 to a minimum by r-arefully brushing the 

 surface down prior to commencing 

 collecting operations. Rubber which has 

 foreign matter incorporated with it is 

 classed under the term negrohead in the 

 market, though its value depends on the 

 measure of its freedom from dirt or 

 other substance, having regard of course 

 to the quality of the rubber itself when 

 clean. 



" I regard the discovery of this tree of 

 great interest and probable importance, 

 attaining as it does to such a vast size 

 and producing a material of apparently 

 excellent quality. The Indians know it 

 under two names, the Carabisi calling it 

 Touchpong, and the Arawacks, Cumaka- 

 balli.* Noble in proportions, spreading 

 and lifting its massive head above its 

 neighbours, it is one of the largest trees 

 of the forest, and has a wide and general 

 distribution over the deep belt of low 

 country in the colony. Samples of both 

 this and the Hatiet I have sent to 

 England to be tested as to their probable 

 commercial value." 



Mr. Jenmau refers to these samples 

 in a report published in 1885, on "Balata 

 and the Balata Industry, Forest Laws, 

 etc." 



" From a sample I sent home last year 

 to be tested, Touchpong rubber was very 

 favourably spoken of as to quality and 

 estimated as worth from 2/3 to 2/6 per 

 lb., which is the highest estimated value 

 that has been given by experts for any 

 of the substances, balata or india-rubber. 



In his book on " Para Rubber," Mr, 

 Herbert Wright gives the price of some 

 samples of Plantation Para rubber in 

 1884 and 1885 as 2s. 8d. and 2s. 5d. respec- 

 tively, with which the value estimated 

 for Sapium rubber does not compare so 

 unfavourably. Also on 1st January, 1885, 

 Para Rubber of fine quality was selling 

 at only 2s. 8d- per lb. 



* Cumakaballi, an Indian name for all the larger 

 species of Ficus and not properly applied to the 

 Touchpong. 



f Hatie, an Indian name for species of Hevea 

 growing in this colony. 



