482 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Junx, 1898. 
after the fraud was discovered. This exposure led the local merchants to be 
more careful in the selection of the natives to whom they entrusted the 
gathering of the rubber, and the trouble disappeared. — : 
Besides exporting the rubber in the shape I have described, the natives 
“use it to cover coats or bags to render them waterproof. ‘The cloth to be 
treated, whether of linen’ or cotton, is washed, allowed to dry, and then 
stretched on a framework of sticks. ‘The milky juice, as it comes out of the 
tree and before it is a day old, is mixed with a little sulphur, and the combina- 
tion is spread over the cloth with the hands. ‘Two or three coatings are given 
in this manner, and, after the surface is smoothed oyer by using long feathers, 
the cloth under treatment is placed under the direct rays of the hot tropical 
sun for six or seven hours. The whitish colour begins to turn darker and 
darker, until it becomes perfectly black when thoroughly dry. It is then 
removed, frame’and all, and placed in running water—generally in the middle 
of some stream or creek, with several stones weighing on it to prevent its. 
being carried away. It is allowed to remain there overnight, and when taken » 
_ out the next morning the black tint has washed off and the remaining colour 
is a brownish yellow. If no sulphur is at hand. they often use gunpowder, ° 
which seems to answer the same purpose, but the final colour of the coating 
becomes black instead of brownish yellow, The use of sulphur or gunpowder, 
according to the natives, prevents the rubber coating from becoming sticky 
after it has been dried. 
While conducting the explorations already referred to, we extracted the 
rubber from some trees adjacent to one of our camps, and, by use of the 
native process described, we rendered waterproof some coats and bags made 
of common cotton cloth. We used them during the rainy season with very 
satisfactory results, as they proved to be completely impervious to water. 
The rubber-tree seems to thrive so well in Darien that its planting and cultiva- 
tion ought to prove a remunerative investment in that locality.—Epuarpo 
J. Cuipas. 
In the course of a report which emanated from the Royal Botanic Garden 
at Trinidad, some four years ago, on rubber from the Castilloa clastica, and its 
uses, the following paragraph occurred :— 
In the province of Veragua, a port of the Colombian Republic, which lies 
north of the Isthmus of Panama, the rubber is well manufactured by the 
Indians. The process by which the ultimate result is reached is unknown to 
the writer, but waterproof clothing and bags are produced which would indeed 
do credit to European manufacture. The most important article in use by the 
natives is the rubber bag, and, whether proceeding by land or by water, it 
forms the general receptacle into which all clothes and other property are 
deposited for safety. ‘The bags.are completely waterproof and can bear a long 
immersion without the contents becoming damp, besides which, when in the 
shallow and frail canoe of the Indian, it forms a life-buoy of a very effective 
kind, for, notwithstanding it being partially full of clothes, &c., it will still 
contain sufficient air to give it buoyancy enough to support a man in the 
water, and care is always taken to prepare it for such an emergency by 
inflating it and tying up its aperture securely before starting on a water 
journey. The material used as the basis to which the ‘rubber is affixed is 
simply the ordinary unbleached calico or cotton cloth of various strengths, 
according to the article required. When well prepared these articles are seen 
to be covered with a soft, smooth, flexible, almost transparent coat of brown- 
coloured rubber, which is thoroughly waterproof and may be exposed to the 
sun or the weather for considerable time without injury. 
The Denver (Col.) Republican, of 28th December, 1897, contained an 
interview with Mr. H. L. Brigham, of San Francisco, on the rubber interests 
on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, from which the following extract is made:— 
The manner in which rubber garments are made in the countries where 
rubber is produced is crude and slow, but when one buys a rubber garment 
there he is sure that he gets the pure article. I spent several months on the 
