Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-03-02
RUBBER GATHERING
With a Seringueiro in Brazilian
Forest.
The Tangled wilderness from which
the Commodity Is Drawn-"Milk-
ing" the Trees, as II Is Done
by the Expert
(From the London Chronicle.)


~ penetrating the great rubber forest a |
thick mist shrouds the dense wall of pri- |
meval growth. nifty and sixty feet high !
.liat stretches inland for more than 120
miles beyond the tiny village of the |
"SerrEueiros, built, as is usual on !
piles and stakes driven into the sodden
and boggy soil OF the river valley. The !
air. heavy with the vapors of the night
md the exhalations Of ncighboring
marshes, Swallows and lagoons tistils tho
moisture on to the clothes, the hair, the
oyelds and ear-tips Of those who venture
to face the breaking day in the upper
reache- of the mighty Amazon.
The mist. that seems to hold the light
ursoned, is unlike anything of the same
Kind one encounters in other lands-clu-
sivc as the colors of the fablcd chameleon,
and as chanEeful. one instant here. an
other It Is there. Now It whirls in one
ulace. then It curls In another Ike a
succession of huge but noseless breakers
rolling upon a silent seashore. Nowhere
can tho eye fix II.
Early as the hour Is, the sounds Of
movement and activity in the village are
clearly borne to the ear. There comes
the harsh grating OF the grndinE-stones,
between which the women prepare the
grain for their "pastellos'' and grddlc-
bread the things of the stona- hammers
with witch coffee and cocoa berries of
the "uonassue" nuts for the open air
fires over which the pots are boiled And
out Of ;hc mist which still enshrouds the
village and villagers stalks sturdy and
wite-robed figure. the earliest Of the
Seringueiros" bound for the forest on a
/ long days work
He is a tall and sturdly built man. spare
of figure and 1.-the of limb. with no super-
luous flesh about him. Working, as
rule. at a temperature ranging from o.
in the shade to 10 in the 4un, he is
perpetually in sort OF Turkish bath that
tends to keep down fat lie is dark of
complexion, swarthy and of III" true In
dian type. although he is really a "trebly'
mixed native, Indian-portugIcS' pitts no
gro. The Indian shows in his limbs ana
color, the Portuguese i'm his modified fe1-
lures. and the negro in his woody hair.
He is dressed in the simplest way posi-
he for his worli. lie wears a pair of
short white drawers, tucked ny AS far
as the knee. and a white shirt. He has
neither head covering nor foot gear
He has a coil of rope thrown over the
as a rifeman carries his cartridge bando-
ler, a short, sharp knife stuck in the
waisband that confines his shirt and
drawers and a small but very keenedged
axe hanging on his right side lie carries
In each hand tin bucket one Of them
containing a supply of srddle- bread and
coffee and soured cheese for the midday
meal. some nuts to MUNICH at intervals,
| -. 90 md tn
| make his coffee in.
! Lazy like all mixed-breed men of the
tropics he is hard-worker AMI an early
bird when rubber ga thering is in hand
as indeed. every "scringuero need he,
for a days work involves the tapping of
some alf-hundrcd trees. which must
| often he done before midday--the Collec-
ton Of the run from the trees tapped,
which must BE finished in the afternoon,
and the smoking" Of the milk in the
| evening His earnings will not average
more than a couple Of shillins> English
I. day, taking the average throughout TIE
season He objects to regular work Of
| any sort. with the idea Of servitude 1t
implies He could earn dollar or more
a day II he would take to ranching,
which only requires labor to be extremely
profitable.
As he energies from the mist which en-
shrouds the village. lie is quickly follow
ed by a lad of about fourteen. attircd In
nothing but his own polished brown skin.
| He carries a tin pail in one hand and
n long. slender rod in the other, on ask
| ing the purpose OF this rod. the "Serng-
uerio"-whom ! join for the day out in
the forest-intorms me IT is for the
| hal
he explains, but they are sometimes
troublesome when YOU disturb their sleep
carly in the day"
In its shroud Of mist, the foreSt-as We
enter it-looks distinctly weird and rather
unreal The ground is everywhere broken
by hog and marsh splits, and the vapor
| drawn from these takes all sorts of fanci-
ia. shapes and forms. 1t rolls Ike waves
| ard floats like clouds of fleece II cUrls
about the open clesrings. and makes reFu-
| lar spiras round the tree-sterNs, which
rise from them as from some circular
base The foliage or the huge rubber
bearers appears dark and ashen in the
dim light, while the underground shows
positively black.
| As We proceed onward ara the sun he
| gins to rise the aspec; Of the forest be-
| comes more SllP nNiT sun. IuNe seen
! the sun rise over the Atlantic In n halo
" green and gold. | have watched H.,
, FLOOD red. as IT began 10 peep above the
skyline OF the desert. But l have never
noticed anything 50 peculiar rs the effect
OF growing day in this rubber forest Of
the Amazon. You see IT, not In the sky,
but In the patches OF mist and vapor
that come and 20 upon the ground. In
fact, you have to look down on the earth,
| ana watch the gradual rise by ''s effects
| reflected In the watery fog darung and
| swelling and disappearing on every side.
As the light grows stronger we see
| snakes coicd up AT the base of tho wees
| looking for all the world IKE ropes OF
| coppcry gold and green, Maclws. high
up In the loftier branches, Zap wing
| idly as we pass too lazy to move before
| the day is more advanced. Here and
there "A monkey chances down with the
snarl that Is so like distorted grin, and
swings himself branch further OF.
| And, what struck me strangest In
| more than one place a species of sloth
| Is clnglng upright with two forepaws
round tree stem, evidently making its
bed where II had taken its supper the
night before.
Ignoring these things as sights too ia
| miliar to be worth the noting, the Ser
| ingueiro'' goes steadily on, picking his
| was carefully 30 as to avoid the tangle Of
| underground and the stems OF twining
| creepers that everywhere impede the way