INDIA-RUBBER TREES 



95 



lections ; so that before the end of our journey we had 

 got together a very considerable number of birds, insects, 

 and shells chiefly taken, however, in the low country. 

 Leaving Baiao we took our last farewell of the limpid 

 waters and varied scenery of the upper river, and found 

 ourselves again in the humid flat region of the Amazons 

 valley. We sailed down this lower part of the river by 

 a different channel from the one we travelled along in 

 ascending, and frequently went ashore on the low islands 

 in mid-river. As already stated, these are covered with 

 water in the wet season ; but at this time, there having 

 been three months of fine weather, they were dry through- 

 out, and by the subsidence of the waters placed four or 

 five feet above the level of the river. They are covered 

 with a most luxuriant forest, comprising a large number 

 of india-rubber trees. We found several people en- 

 camped here, who were engaged in collecting and pre- 

 paring the rubber, and thus had an opportunity of 

 observing the process. 



The tree which yields this valuable sap is the Siphonia 

 elastica, a member of the Euphorbiaceous order ; it be- 

 longs, therefore, to a group of plants quite different from 

 that which furnishes the caoutchouc of the East Indies 

 and Africa. This latter is the product of different species 

 of Ficus, and is considered, I believe, in commerce an 

 inferior article to the india-rubber of Para. The Siphonia 

 elastica grows only on the lowlands in the Amazons region ; 

 hitherto the rubber has been collected chiefly in the is- 

 lands and swampy parts of the mainland within a distance 

 of fifty to a hundred miles to the west of Para ; but there 

 are plenty of untapped trees still growing in the wilds of 

 the Tapajos, Madeira, Jurua, and Jauari, as far as 1800 

 miles from the Atlantic coast. The tree is not remark- 

 able in appearance ; in bark and foliage it is not unlike 

 the Europeaij ash ; but the trunk, Hke that of all forest 

 trees, shoots up to an immense height before throwing 

 off branches. The trees seem to be no man's property 

 hereabout. The people we met with told us they came 

 every year to collect rubber on these islands, as soon as 

 the waters had subsided, namely, in August, and remained 

 till January or February. The process is very simple. 

 Every morning each person, man or woman, to whom is 

 allotted a certain number of trees, goes the round of the 

 whole and collects in a large vessel the milky sap which 



