KINDRED PRODUCTS TO RUBBER
Distinct from rubber, but closely akin to it, are the two materials
known as “gutta-percha” and “balata.”
The gutta-percha tree has its home in the Far East, in Malay, the East
Indies, and the South Sea Islands. The trees are sometimes tapped as
they stand, by a similar method of V-shaped cuts as is practised by the
Nicaraguans in tapping Castilloas. Sometimes they are felled, trunk and
branches being then ringed with cuts.
Gutta milk, like rubber milk, is white. Sometimes it flows freely, in
which case it is collected in cups or calabashes. It always coagulates
very quickly, sometimes so rapidly that none runs out of the cuts;
these get filled up with solid strips, which can be pulled off.
Frequently it runs so gently that it can be collected on a bit of
coagulated gutta. When a small pellet of solidified gutta is rolled
along a cut, the fresh milk sticks to it, and quickly hardens. In some
districts the free-flowing gutta milk is coagulated by boiling. In
others it is left to itself to turn into a thick cream, and is then
coated over a piece of completely coagulated gutta.
Most of the gutta-gathering is done by natives, who deal very roughly
with the trees, and are not at all particular about the quality of
the material they prepare. But Britain and Holland, who own territory
in those parts of the world where the gutta-percha tree grows, are
anxious to improve the conditions under which the raw gutta industry is
carried on. Already some desirable changes have been brought about, and
efforts are being made to introduce other reforms in connection with
working methods and general organization. Under European supervision,
gutta-percha is now extracted from the leaves of the tree. And there
is an estate, belonging to the Netherland Indian Government, where the
best varieties of gutta-trees are being cultivated, to make up for the
scarcity of them that has been brought about by the destructive methods
of the native workers in the forests.
Gutta-percha lacks some of the valuable qualities of rubber: it is not
elastic, in ordinary temperatures it is quite hard, and when it gets
very dry it is brittle. For manufacturing purposes it has to be heated,
when it can be moulded into the desired form; but as it cools, it
hardens again. It is used chiefly for insulating submarine cables.
Balata is the product of a tree which flourishes in the forests
of British Guiana, a little-known but magnificent country in the
north-eastern corner of South America. The forests of British Guiana
are a continuation of the forests of the Amazon, which they closely
resemble. At present, they are only known to a few explorers, the
balata-bleeders, a few seekers after gold and diamonds, and odd
travellers who like to get away from the beaten tracks. In all my
wanderings East and West, I have had few such delightful experiences,
none more interesting and novel, than my trip to these forests.
Yet, although they occupy by far the greater part of a British
Colony, which is about equal in size to England, not one Briton in a
thousand knows anything about them. Indeed, so little does the Mother
Country appreciate the importance of owning a part, although only a
comparatively small part, of the rapidly developing Continent of South
America, that very few Britons know British Guiana by name even, and
the majority of these imagine it is the same country as British New
Guinea.
[Illustration: (1) TAPPING RUBBER VINE (FICUS). _Page 40_
(2) EXTRACTING GUTTA-PERCHA, NEW GUINEA. _Page 42_]
Most of the balata-bleeders are negroes, the present-day natives of the
Colony. The life they lead is rough and solitary, very much like that
of a seringueiro.
The balata-gathering season begins in the latter part of May, but weeks
before this many of the labourers have to set out on the long journey
to the particular part of the forest where their work lies. They are
employed, under contract, by companies who hold licences to collect
balata from such or such tracts of the forest, called “grants.” All
employees are paid according to the results they can show in solid
balata, so much for every pound of the material; but they must go where
they are sent to find it, and getting there is such a difficult and
trying business that work may well be considered to begin with the
journey to the grants.
Balata trees grow wild throughout the Colony. Sometimes they are found
in groups, sometimes scattered about amidst the many other varieties of
trees which crowd the forest. Some of the grants that are being worked
are in the lower valleys of the rivers. But in a country where “inland”
is a dense barrier of virgin bush, with its face quite close to the
coast, it is a long journey even to districts which are said to be
“most accessible,” because they happen to be nearer than others to some
place where there is a town or village. Many of the most accessible
balata-grants are a two or three weeks’ journey away from the nearest
centre of civilization. And it takes from four to six weeks to reach
some of the remote ones in the far interior.
The rivers, with their tributaries and creeks, are the only means of
communication with the grants. Owing to the enterprise of Sprostons,
a local firm, and, in later years, to a Government service of river
transport, there are steamer and launch facilities on nearly all the
main rivers, but although the vessels can perform marvellous feats in
the way of shooting rapids and manipulating falls, sooner or later
the terminus of each civilized, up-country service is fixed by long
stretches of disturbed waters, which cannot possibly be navigated by
big craft.
To the majority of the balata-bleeders, the river steamers are a great
boon. But even when these men are going to one of the grants not far
removed in miles from a steamer terminus, they are pretty sure to have
to rough it on the last part of their journey, for nearly all the
grants are situated on the banks of a tributary or creek.
Here is a rough sketch of one journey in which use can be made of the
civilized travelling facilities. The balata-bleeders leave Georgetown,
the capital of British Guiana, in the early morning, and go by steamer
up the Demerara River. By midday they have passed the bounds of
cultivated country; the Demerara sugar-cane lands have given place to
virgin forest. By about five in the afternoon they reach Wismar, where
they leave the steamer. Here, thanks again to Sprostons’ determined
efforts to open up the Colony, there is a train awaiting them. Right
through the heart of the forest runs the only bit of railway-line in
the whole interior of British Guiana, connecting Wismar on the Demerara
River, with Rockstone on the Essequibo.
Why, as they want to get on the Essequibo, do they not go by boat
direct through its mouth, and upstream to Rockstone by its course?
Time was when the balata-bleeders bound for Essequibo grants were
obliged to follow this route; but many were the lives that were lost in
the dangerous falls that block the lower part of the river. The railway
was built to complete a safe passage round to Rockstone, above these
falls, via the Demerara River and a cross-country cut.
The run from Wismar to Rockstone, which takes about a couple of hours,
completes the first day’s stage of the journey. After a night’s rest
in a wooden shanty, the travellers must follow one of two methods
for proceeding on their way. They can at once take to small boats,
or they can go on by launch for a couple of days before being
actually compelled to adopt the slowest and most laborious means of
river-transit.
The visitor to Rockstone is sure to see some open boats tied up to the
landing-stage. On first making the acquaintance of these rough-looking
little craft, he imagines they are merely for the use of men who want
to go a-fishing for a few hours, or for anyone who has to make short
river-trips. On going down to the landing-stage a few hours later--if
he is in this part of the world during the early months of the year--he
is surprised to find that some of those old tubs have been transformed
into tent-boats, that the space beneath each awning is crowded with
stacks of small cargo, such as packing-cases, hammocks, pots and pans,
and that round and above the piled-up goods and chattels stretch long
lengths of string laden with calabashes. He is still more surprised
when he learns that a large party of balata-bleeders is about to set
forth in these boats on a two, three, or four weeks’ journey. Not an
inch of accommodation does there seem to be left for passengers; yet
several men manage to squeeze into each boat. They pass long day after
long day in their cramped quarters, smoking, gossiping, dozing, and
taking their turn at the paddles. At night they go ashore, and camp in
the forest; they light a fire, have a picnic, sling their hammocks,
and turn into sleep until daylight makes it possible for them to get a
little farther on their way to work. On days when they have to navigate
one set of rapids after another, and drag the boat overland past fall
after fall, it is but a very little farther they are able to push
forward.
The labourers who leave Rockstone by launch find little boats waiting
for them when they reach the camp that is situated at the terminus of
civilized travelling facilities in the wilds. They then have to rough
it for the rest of their journey.
[Illustration: BALATA BLEEDERS LEAVING SPROSTONS’ STELLING AT
ROCKSTONE, BRITISH GUIANA. _Page 46_
Note large number of calabashes for catching the gum]
On one of the riverways which leads to many grants, there is no steamer
or launch to help the labourers on their way. The work of paddling
the boats along this route is made specially hard by masses of grass,
which drift down from the Savannahs. A way has to be hacked through the
floating barriers with cutlasses. You can imagine what a difficult task
this is when I tell you that the grass on the water is sometimes so
firm that people can walk on it.
When a balata-bleeder reaches his destination he builds himself
a hut--a wooden framework, thatched with leaves. Then he makes a
dabree, a large tray about half a foot deep, in which balata latex is
coagulated. The dabree is composed of closely-fitted strips of palm,
the crevices between which are filled with damp clay or earth. The
joins are dried in the sun, after which the tray is made water-tight
with a lining of balata. When the dabree has been fitted to a frame,
and a screen of palm-leaves has been put up on the windward side to
keep off the rain, the whole construction looks very much like a
bedstead.
Next comes the work of locating balata-trees within the appointed
tract. This is a serious version of the game of hide-and-seek. The
trees are concealed somewhere--anywhere among other trees and a tangle
of undergrowth and overgrowth; the darkie who has come to find them has
to clear the way for every step he takes in looking for them. After he
has discovered a number of them, he makes his plans for going the round
of these to collect a supply of latex.
Each tree is tapped by means of a cutlass, an implement which the
British Guiana negro uses for cutting anything from a loaf of bread to
a path through the bush. The cuts are made in featherstitch pattern,
running from the base of the trunk to a great height thereon. The
operator stands on the ground to make the lower ones; when he has
reached as far up as he can in this way, he climbs the tree by means
of a bush-rope ladder, or hauls himself up in a rope cradle, or on
stirrups made by twisting a rope spirally round the trunk. At the base
of the trunk a calabash is put, and the latex trickles down into this
by way of the zigzag cuts.
The latex is poured into the dabree, where it naturally coagulates into
sheets. These sheets are hung up first on the framework of the dabree
to drain, and then in a shed to dry ready for being sent down to town,
to the owners of the grant.
Under peril of losing their licence, the owners are responsible for
seeing that their labourers obey certain regulations, which have been
made with a view to keeping the balata-trees in good condition. No tree
may be tapped until its trunk measures 3 feet round at a distance of 4
feet from the ground. Only half the trunk surface may be bled in one
season; the cuts must not exceed a given depth, must not be more than
1-1/2 inches wide, and there must be a distance of at least 10 inches
between any two of them. No part of a tree may be retapped until the
old wounds have quite healed, a process which takes from four to five
years.
Balata is largely used for machinery-belting.