386 



[November, 1910- 



GUMS, RESINS, SAPS AND EXUDATIONS. 



PARA, MANAOS AND THE AMAZON, 



(By the Editor, India Rubber World, 

 XLIL, No. 4, July, 1910). 



Fourth Letter. 

 The Life of the Rubber Collector and 

 his relation to the Seringal Owner.— A 

 visit to the Oncas Island.— Dr. Huber 

 and the Musee Goeldi.— A-lleged perils of 

 the Amazon which Do Not always 

 Materialise on a Trip Upriver, —The 

 Approach to Manaos. 



The first thing the labourers on a 

 Seringal are set at, when a new season 

 begins, is the cleaning of the old 

 estradas. Five or six months in a tropical 

 forest bring great changes. Huge trees 

 have fallen across the paths, dragging 

 others in their fall and often making 

 impossible barriers around which a way 

 must be cut. Vines and young trees 

 have sprung up and grown enormously, 

 and everything that nature could do to 

 efface man's work has been done. So 

 that the cleaning of the estradas is no 

 light task. It means not only re-opening 

 the path, but cutting a circle about two 

 feet wide around each rubber tree, so 

 that there will be room to work. Then 

 comes the opening of new estradas, if 

 there are labourers enough to work 

 them. And next in order is the tapping. 



This starts very early in the morning. 

 The seringueiro rises at 4 o'clock, boils 

 some coffee which he hurriedly drinks, 

 and provided with a maehadinha, or 

 little tapping axe, and several hundred 

 tin cups, starts barefooted for his 

 estrado. When he reaches the first 

 rubber tree he attaches as many cups as 

 the size of the tree warrants, usually in 

 a circle as high up as he can convenient- 

 ly cut. These cups are attached directly 

 under the cuts, and catch the latex as it 

 flows out. There is a great difference in 

 trees as far as the production of latex 

 goes. Some bleed freely, others reluc- 

 tantly ; some furnish thick, creamy 

 latex, others thin latex, and occasionally 

 one gives none at all. 



Although alone in the jungle that 

 shelters many wild beasts and venomous 

 snakes, the rubber worker is very rarely 

 molested. The wild creatures all get 

 out of the way of man when they can. 

 To be sure, if the tree tapper should 

 leave his pile of tin cups for a short time, 

 a trouble-seeking monkey might swing 

 down from the branches above, lift the 

 stack, and throw it high in the air just 

 for the delight of seeing the cups scatter. 



From tree to tree goes the rubber 

 tapper until all on his estrada have their 

 girdle of cups. He now discards the 

 tapping tool, and taking some vessel, 

 very frequently an empty kerosene can, 

 begins the collection of the latex. His 

 first visit is to the first tree tapped, 

 where the latex has probably ceased 

 running, and the cups may be a quarter, 

 a half, or nearly full, depending on the 

 productiveness of the tree. By the time 

 he has finished this round and collected 

 all of the latex, it is 9 or 10 o'clock, and 

 he is ready for breakfast. This he pre- 

 pares himself and it usually consists of 

 dried beef and beans, always accom- 

 panied by farinha. 



The Smoking op Rubber. 

 The rubber worker is now ready to do 

 the day's smoking. On the fire smould- 

 ering in his hut he heaps some of the 

 heavy oily nuts that are borne abun- 

 dantly by the " urucuri " palm (Attalea 

 excelsa). Over this, if he has it, he 

 places a funnel that is like a truncated 

 cone open at each end, part of the lower 

 edge being cut away to make a draught. 

 Until recently these cones were made of 

 earthenware and were heavy and rather 

 fragile. To-day the aviadores supply 

 them in sheet iron with handles on the 

 side. These are much more portable 

 and not breakable, but the seringueiro, 

 that is, the old expert ones, detest them. 

 They complain that the iron throws off 

 so much heat that their work is much 

 more disagreeable than when they used 

 clay cones. 



When the smoke is coming thick and 

 hot from the funnel, the seringueiro 

 winds a bit of freshly coagulated rubber 

 about a piece of wood shaped something 

 like a broom handle, and thoroughly 

 dries it in the smoke. Then he dips this 

 in the latex and holds it again over the 

 smoke until that film is dried. Over 

 and over again he repeats this process, 

 the ball growing in size with every 

 dipping. Where large balls are to 

 be made that cannot easily be handled, 

 a rest is made by driving two forked 

 sticks into the ground with a cross piece 

 connecting them. In the middle of this 

 cross piece is a loop of bush rope into 

 which the end of the pole holding the 

 rubber ball is thrust. The seringueiro, 

 grasping the other end, swings the ball 

 over the smoke and turns it easily. As 

 a further assistance a loop of bush 

 rope coming down from the roof of 

 the hut helps the labourer to hold his 

 end of the smoking pole. 



