The Manufacture Of India Rubber Shoes In Brazil

A correspondent of tho Journal of Commerce, writing from Para, in Brazi!, gives the following interestingdiscription of the manufacture of India rubber shoes: -"We found Senhor Angelica's family. like himself, very hospitable and very talkalive. After dinner we were shown over the place, and entering the neighboring forest, were shown the caoutchouc tree. They grow, in general, to the height of forty or fifty without branches, then branching, run up fifteen feet higher. - The leaf is about six inch.es long, thin and shaped like thot of a peach tree. The trees show their working by the number of knots or bunches made by tapping; and a singular fact is that like a cow, vvhen tapped, they give most milk or sap. "As the time for operating is early in the day, we were obliged to content ourselves with viewing the utensils anc raouids used by the shoemakers, awaiting until next morning to see the modus op erandi. Accordingly, before sunnse we were on hand. The blacks were firs sent through the forest, armed with a quantity of clay and a small pickaxe. - On coming to one of the trees, a portion of the soft clay is formed into a cup ancstuck to the trunk. The black then striking his piek over the cup, the sap oozes out slov.'ly, a tree giving daily about a gilí. The tapper continúes in this way, tapping perhaps fifty trees, when he returns, and with a jar passing over the same ground, empties his cup. So by seven o'clock the blacks come in wilh their iars ready for vorking. "The sap at this stage resembles milk in appearance, and somewhat in taste. - If left standing now, it will curdle like milk, disengaginga watcry substance like whey. "Shoemakers now arrange themselves to form the gum. Seated in the shade wilh a large pan of milk on oneside, and on the other a fagon, in which is burned a nut peculiar to this country, emitíing a dense smoke, the operator having his last, or form, held by a long stick or handle, besmeared with soft clay, (in order to slip off the shoe when finished,) holds it over the pan, and pouring on the milk unlil it is covered, sets the coating in the smoke; then giving itthe secondcoat, repeats the smoking; uhtil theshoe is of the required thickness, averaging from six to twelve coats. When finished, the shoes on the forms are placed in thesun the remainder of the day to drip. Next day, if required, they may be figured, being so soft ihai any impression will be indelibly received. The natives are very dexterous in this work. With a quill and sharp pointed stick, they will produce finely linedJeaves and fiowers, such as you may have seen on the shoes, in an incredible short time. After remaining on the forms two or three days, the shoes are cut open on the tops, allowing the last to slip out. - They arethen tiedtogether andslung on poles, ready for market. There peddlers and Jews trade for them with the country people; and in lots of a thousand or more, who have them stuiFed with straw and packed in boxes to export, in which state they are received in the United States. In the same manner any shape may be manufactured. Thus toys are made overclay forms. After drying, the clay is broken and extracted. Bottles, &c, in the same way. According as the gum grows older, it becomcs darker in color and more tough. The mimber of Caoutchouc trees in this Provmce is countless. In some parts whole forests of hem exist, and they are frequently cut down for firewood. Although this tree exists in Mexico and the Eastlndies, thee appears to be no more imporfation into he United States from these places. The reason, I suppose, must be, the want of hat prolificness found in them here. "The Caoutchouc tree may be worked all the year; but generally in the wet season they have rest, owing to the flooded btato of the wopds; and the milt being vatery, requires more labor toture the sajne anieles than in the dry season. This, to these very reasoning people, is sufficient to deter them from working in winter; extra labor giving hem unpleasant feelings."