and three inches deep, and a very weak acid
(usually acetic) is stirred into it. In about half an hour the acid
coagulates the latex (like rennet in making junket from milk) into a
soft, pure white mass, about two inches thick and of the area of the
pan. This soft mass of rubber is carefully floated out of the pan onto a
table, where it is rolled on both sides for a few minutes with a wooden
rolling-pin to squeeze out the excess of water and acid. It is then
carefully lifted into a large vessel of pure water to harden until the
next day.

[Illustration: THREE LATEX GATHERERS.

The boy in the middle of the group has the canvass bag over his
shoulder in which he carries the scraps of dried rubber from the
grooves on the trees.]

The next day it is run several times through smooth steel rollers under
dropping water, where it is flattened out into sheets of about an inch
or less in thickness and of a proportionately greater area. It is next
passed through roughened steel rollers that mark it off into ridges and
depressions like a waffle.

These sheets, now tough and elastic, are hung in a closed chamber and
smoked until they reach a proper shade of brown, when they are ready for
shipment. The smoking process, which is to preserve the rubber, often
takes many days, though at the time of our visit the manager of the
Bukit Timar estate was experimenting with a method that would complete
the smoking in a few hours.

The production of rubber in the Malay Peninsula is of rather recent date
and it has increased by leaps and bounds. In the various "booms" that
have taken place many fortunes have been made--as witnessed by the
palatial residences about Singapore--but many have also been lost,
though the witnesses to these are not so evident.

[Illustration: THE TRAVELER PALM, AN UNUSUAL TYPE OFTEN SEEN IN THE FAR
EAST SINGAPORE AND ELSEWHERE.]

Whether the increased demands for rubber will justify the thousands of
young trees that are still being planted, not only on the Malay
Peninsula but on Borneo and other islands of the Far East, remains to be
seen; but, judging from the opinions of several rubber experts of
Singapore, this is quite doubtful.

VII. TWO CHINESE CITIES.

After a voyage (unusually calm for the China Sea) of four days from
Singapore, the S. S. "Buelow" slowly steamed among the islands at
the entrance and came to anchor just after sunset in the beautiful
harbor of Hongkong. There is r