Motor Matt's Mystery; or, Foiling a Secret Plot
Page 21
PARA RUBBER AND ITS GATHERING.
Rubber is collected by the natives in Brazil, who gather the thick,creamlike sap which oozes from the hatchet-cut in the bark of therubber-trees. It is received in tiny cups of clay or tin, severalof which are emptied daily into pots and carried where the sap iscoagulated and "cured." The flow of sap from each tapping lasts but afew hours, and the tree must be bled in fresh places daily.
The total yield from the most vigorous tree does not exceed three orfour pints in a season, and a considerable percentage of this is lostby evaporation.
In the camps the Para rubber sap is coagulated over a fire of Uricuripalm-nuts, built under an earthen pot, something like a slender-neckedjug without a bottom. A paddle is dipped into the thick sap, and then,holding it in thick smoke, it is deftly turned in the operator's handsuntil a thin layer of rubber is formed. An hour's work at this wouldproduce a lump, the foundation of a biscuit weighing five or sixpounds. When the biscuit has reached a weight of twenty-five pounds ormore, it is slit open, the paddle removed, and the rubber hung up todry. Rubber thus gathered and cured is the finest known.
From the forest the rubber is sent down the stream on crude boats,later being placed on the steamers which ply the Amazon. When Manaos,the second largest city in the Amazon country, is reached, the rubberis boxed, though this is often left until its arrival at Para, atthe mouth of the Amazon River. Manaos is 1,200 miles from the sea,so that considerable time is consumed in bringing the rubber to itsshipping-point to foreign lands. At Para it is placed in the oceanliners destined for New York or some of the European countries.