132 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
ally in the more sluggish streams, fish are stupefied or poisoned, or, having 
been first attracted at night to the surface with a torch, are speared. 
Hunting is not extensively practiced since wild game is so scarce. Small 
animals such as shrews, otters, mongooses, and antelopes are caught in trap 
snares or in springs or nets, and particularly in pitfalls and along the customary 
route of the animals to the water. Occasionally a heavily-weighted harpoon 
is poised over the path on a snare. Bows and arrows are now seldom employed. 
Guns generally of antiquated type, and spears, are used in hunting forest 
buffaloes, elephants, and leopards. Spears or lances are sometimes fired from 
guns. Leopards are generally first caught in traps and then shot. The natives 
usually hold and discharge the gun in a peculiar way, not placing the stock to 
the shoulder, but below and under the armpit. In hunting elephants, the 
particular aim seems to be to wound the animal severely in the abdomen and 
then to follow him until he falls or dies of the resulting peritonitis. Elephants 
have become searce in Liberia and even the pigmy hippopotamus, the species 
which occurs there, is not common. 
RUBBER PRODUCTION 
For the production and cultivation of rubber the conditions are particularly 
favorable in Liberia. The wild rubber plants grow abundantly in certain areas, 
and the cultivation of the imported Para rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), has for a 
number of years been successfully practiced. In 1923 Mr. Harvey 8. Firestone 
emphasized the unfavorable aspect of foreign rubber monopolies, and evidently 
influenced Congress to appropriate $500,000 to enable the Department of 
Commerce to investigate the possibilities of developing American-owned plan- 
tations of rubber and of other essential raw materials. He also directed attention 
to Liberia as a rubber-producing country, and sent representatives there to in- 
vestigate the situation. The opportunities for the production of rubber in that 
country and the desirability of the United States’ having an independent source 
of supply, were strongly emphasized in his book, ‘‘Men and Rubber.” After 
having had the situation carefully considered in Liberia, Mr. Firestone entered 
into an agreement with the Government of the Republic! under the terms of 
which he was granted a lease for ninety-nine years on a million acres of the 
most suitable land, and another lease for a like period on a plantation of two 
thousand acres which was started fifteen years before and which was in full 
bearing. . Arrangements were also entered into for the general public improve- 
ment of the country, such as the construction of port and harbor facilities, 
roads, hospitals, sanitation, lines of communication, and hydro-electric power 
plants. Mr. Firestone further states that for the last year his factories have 
been receiving shipments of rubber of the highest grade from the above-mentioned 
plantation, and that he believes ‘“‘that we can build up Liberia through our own 
operations to a point where, in addition to being our great rubber source, 
it will also be a large market for American goods. This will be serving the 
people in a practical way.” In the closing chapters of his book he writes: 
1 Firestone, H. 8.: ‘‘Men and Rubber’ (1926), p. 268. 
