The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1879-05-28
MISGELLAN
RUBBER GATHERING ON THE AMI
ION,


- - fE
The following account of most interesting
industry~occurs in the Scribner series on Bra
I'll by Herbert II. Smith, who writes from
personal experience
The rubber swatnps are all around, but
land travelling is out Of the question So an
Indian canoe-man is engaged-a good-natur-
ed fellow, and an adept in wood-craft. He
sets us across the river at half-runed hut,
where bright vines Chamber over the broken
thatch and hang in long fessoous in front of
the low doorway; but within the floor is
sodden black clay, and dark mold hangs on
the sides, and the air is like a sepuIehre. The
single sioyenly nsdB,etuca woman who inhab-
its the place complains bitterly of the ague
which fortunes her yet year after year, until
the house falls to pieces she will go. on dying
here, because. forsooth it is her own and the
rubber trees are near She will not even re-
pair thcstructure. You. can see sky through
the roof, but if rain drives in. she will swing,
her hammock in another corner, and shiyer
on through the night as best she may, for tc )
morrow there are rubber trees to be tapped,
and fresh harvest.eft the precious milk to be
brought home-and what will you. have ? One
must expect discomfort in a swamp
BackSof the house the rubber trees are scat
tered through marshy forest, where we clam
Der over logs, and sink into pools of muds, !
and leap the puddles where the mosquitoes
are blood-thrsty, and nature is damp, and
dark, and threatening ;swbere the silence is
s.t,l.. L.. r. -
can be felt !. it is like tomb in which we are
buried, away from the sunshine, away from
brute and man alone with rottng death The
very beauty of our forest tomb makes as shud.
der by its intenseness. 80. 8 Is i -
In the early morning, men and women come
with baskets of clay cups on their backs, and
little hatchets to cash the trees. Where the
white milk flows down from the cash they
stick their cups on the trunk with daubs of
clay moulded so as to catch the whole flow.
If the treesis a large one four or five gashes
may be cut in a circle around the trunk. On
the day other gaslies are made little
below these, and so on until the rows reach
the ground. BY eleven o'clock the flow of
milk has ceased, and the seriagueiros come to
collect the contents of the cups in calabash
jugs. A gill or so is the utmost yield from
each tree, and single gaiherermay attend to
hundred and twenty trees or more, wadine
through these dark marshes, and paying
dearly for his profit in fever and weakness.
Our nlameluca hostess has brought in her
days gathering calahash full of the white
liquid, in appearance like milk. If left in
this condition 1t coagulates aftera willie and
forms an inferior whitish gum. To make the
black rubber of commerce the milk must 90
through peculiar process of manufacture.
for which our guide has been preparing. Ov-
er smouldering fire, fed with hard nuts of
the tucunaa palm, he places kind of clay
chimney, like wide mouthed, bottomless
jug through this 5oiao The thick smoke pours
in constant stream. Now he takes his
mould-in this case wooden one, like a
round-biaded paddle-washes it vita the
milk, and holds it over the smoke until the
rubber coagulates. Then another coat is
added, only now, as the wood is heated the
milk coagulates faster 1t may take the
gatherings of two or three days to cover the
mold thckly enoush. Then the rubber is
still dull white, but in short time it turns
brown and finally almost black, as it is sent
to the market. The mass is cut from fthe
paddle and sold to traders in the village
Bottles are sometimes made by molding the
rubber over clay ball, which is then broken
up and removed. Our old-fashoned rubber
shoes used to be made In this way