The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-03-04
GATHERING UAOUTCHOUC.

Interesting Account of the Manner in
which India Rubber d. is Collected I'm
Central America.
As visitors on a Nicaraguan rubber
hunt, we must be dressed in strong but
light clothing, stout shoes, with canvas
leggings, and we must each wear a soft
hat that we con pull well down over
our ears. 1t will be well TOR each of us
to carry staff and a n1dcbete, too. (The
':dchete is a broad heavy knife.) We
must also be very careful not to touch
with our hands any tree, branch, vine or
plant, as we may grasp some stinging
insect, or thorns which may not only be
very sharp, but poisonous as well. l
remember onve, to keep from falling,
seizing bush called chtchtcGste, which
lied my hand with minute thorns,
each producing sensation like the
sting of a wasp. The severe pain lasted
for about a quarter of an hour, but it
was weeks before the thorns ceased to
annoy me, being so small that could
not extract them. We may see on our
way some wild animals and some very
beautiful birds. Monkeys are in great
abundance. One kind, called bowling
monkeys, make q noise which sounds
more like the roar ofa lion or tiger than
anything else, and is quite startling the
first time you hear it, though the mon-
keys themselves are harmless enough.
Parrots, macaws, paroduets, toucans,
and many other birds, are to be seen
almost any day. There are also pumas
(called the American or maneless lion)
ounces, and two or three varieties of
tiger cats; but all these are afraid of
men and generally keep well out of
sight. We may come upon q band of
wild hogs, which, if in any considerable
number, will hardly deign to get out of
cur way; but instead of grunting like
the domestic hog, will express their dis
satisfaction by champing their jaws
together.
as he has q keen eye for snakes. We
shall find numberless insects, any
amount of briers and thorns, and Alto
gether it will be anything but pleasant
walk.
We shall not have gone far without
real izing that the journey is very diff
| ficult one, and without opening our
| eyes with amazement at the wonderful
| forest. There are multitudes of differ
ent kinds of trees growing close together,
and some of them are enormously large,
so large that in this country each one
would be an object of curiosity. The
rest of the trees range from these huge
fellows down 10 the merest shoots, and
from them hang perfect networks of
clinging vines of all sizes, from that of
a kite string to that of good-sized
cable. have seen the vines from fifty
to hundred feet long, no larger than
one of your fingers, but so tough and
flexible that they are used by the natives
for all purposes for which we would
use ropes, cords, or string. They also
are used for several other purposes,
house building, for instance, being one
of them, though you might think it Il
stretch of the imagination to call their
structure house. But it is, at least,
Il habitation, and in the building of it
there is not single nail used-the side,
the ridge-poles and the rafters being
tied in places with vines, and the thatch
tied on to them with the same. The
natives declare that the vines will last
and be good rs ever after nail, in their
damp climate, would have rusted away.
Whether that be true or not, it is well
that they think so, for vines are to be
had for the gathering, while nails are
very expensive. Worse, if anything,
than the vines in the forests, is the
undergrowth, consisting of canes,
bushes, weeds, several varieties of
cactus and other thorn bearing plants,
| Spanish bayOneG and numerous plants
very much like 1t. Some of them are
very valuable for their tibers, but all
are very difficult to travel through, be-
ing interlaced and matted together.
You can readily believe it is no small
| labor to work your way along, to say
nothing of the snakes, scorpions, taran-
tulaS, and other disagreeable things tn 1t
you may meet.
You would imagine that few men
would be willing to undertake quite
such severe work, but so large are the
returns in money when a man is ordi-
narily successful, that plenty are ready
| to 60, and indeed large number make it
| their only occupation, going into the
woods, and remaining one, two, and
even three months at time, according
| to the luck they have.
Al this we find out on our way
through the tanglc, following as closely
rs possible at the heels of our rubber
nunter. We are very hot ard tired by
| the time we reach the tree, but we will
sit down on anything we can tind-a
stump OF log-while Juan, our hunter
| friend, proceeds to tap his tree.
Juan makes with the mIchete, low
down upon the trunk of the tree, two
| deep scores, inclining downward, and
| coming together at a very obtuse angle,
| just below which he secures little
| gutter made of piece of split cane. lie
now makes, higher up, other scores, all
| leading into the first two. Taking
hold of some of the pendent vines, he
manages to climb thirty feet high,
scoring and mutilatiLg the tree most
feartully. We conclude that with such
| treatment as this the tree will not last
many seasons; judiciously tapped, it
would yield twice year for many years,
but in order to get a little more each
| time, these improvident people cut the
bark up so badly, that in few seasons
the tree is ruineC.
The sap, OF milk, begins to ooze out
| at once, and runs down into the pan
| placed to receive it, though we observe
Juan is likely to obtain considerable
| bGTWchG from the manner in which he
has arranged his scores, and particu.
| larly from the height to which he has
extended them. The appearance of the
sap is like that of thick cream, and. il
| left to itself, it would be days before it
| became solid; but Juan soon finds 6
vine called Glcbucd, and sap of this vine
| he mingles with the milk; this has the
| effect of coagulating it, OF making il
solid, in short time, so that in the
course of day it will be ready to bt
removed, though it will be some time
longer before the barucha is hard enough
to be stripped from the tree. Slowly
the rubber, by exposure to the air
turns black, as you generally see it.-E
u. TaLW an 81 NjchOIoe