170 
Tlais rubber is pale yellow in colour, and when held up to the 
Light it is quite transparent, which proves its purity, and accounts 
f*t>r the very high price obtainable for this grade— viz., at present 
about i Os. 3d. per lb. 
' The so-called “ sheet ” rubber is similar to crepe, but slightly 
thicker and not so transparent. It is prepared in a different manner 
and, unlike crepe, must be put through the washing mills by the 
manufacturer before it can be used. 
Hard cure fine Para is prepared by the native labourers on the 
Amazon by dipping a socalled “paddle” in the rubber, and 
then holding it in the smoke of a fire, which hardens the coating of 
milk on the paddle. The paddle is then dipped again for a second 
eoating, and again smoked, and so on until quite a large “ biscuit ” — 
generally weighing about %cwt. — has been built up. The labourer 
t hen takes his knife and slits the biscuit down one side, in order to 
remove his paddle, when he proceeds to make his next biscuit. 
Rubber thus prepared contains a large proportion of moisture, 
but is stronger than any of the plantation rubber, and is worth 
toUlav about 10s. per lb. 
AFRICAN PRODUCTS 
From the Congo we get large supplies of clean solid black 
eLbber, coagulated originally in large blocks and then cut up into 
s^mall cubes in order to allow it to dry and ripen. We also get 
from the Congo rubber in reddish sausages, collected directly from 
the tree, the reddish appearance being caused by small portions 
of the bark adhering. The value of this Congo rubber varies to-day 
from 5 s - 6d. to 6s. 9d. per lb. 
From the Gold Coast we get rubber prepared by the natives’ 
merely digging a trough in the earth and running in the latex, 
which in time coagulates from the outside and forms a hard skin 
and finally a fairly hard lump throughout ; but this grade holds 
all the moisture which was originally in the latex, and as a result, 
when cut across, such lumps are found to contain 50 per cent, of 
their own weight in water. Notwithstanding this, however, such 
rubber is to-day worth about 3s. id. per lb. This is the so-called 
** Gold Coast lump.” 
On the Ivory Coast, the French Sudan, and in the Sierra 
Leone neighbourhood the natives collect rubber from the same 
trees, but give much more pains to the preparation of it, the 
resulting produce being known as “ Sierra Leone Niggers ” or 
“Conakry.” This rubber is in large balls, consisting of strips care- 
fully wound together, varying in size from that of a good sized orange 
to that of a man’s head. This rolling process is carried out when 
the strips of rubber are quite fresh, so that they become one com- 
pact solid ball. Rubber treated in this way is of a reddish colour, 
for which reason these balls are often known as “ Red Niggers ” ; 
they are worth to-day approximately 6s. per lb. 
