Actually the extraction of rubber in the vast seringaes of the municipality of St. Antonio of the River Madeira employ about 5,000 workmen. This number will constantly increase, as the said municipality becomes the center of the currents of commerce, industry and agriculture, from Matto Grosso and the Republic of Bolivia. This is easy to imagine, when we see that the Madeira-Mamoré Railway will place it in communication to the South with S. Luiz de Caceres, by means of the River Guaporé, and by the railway, which, from S. Luiz de Caceres will extend to the ancient city of Matto Grosso, thus joining the basin of the Plata—by means of the Paraguay River, to the basin of the River Amazon. And to the West the same Madeira-Mamoré Railway, reaching to Ribeira-Alta, will bind the vast and rich regions of the Bolivian Republic to the basin of the Amazon, by means of the Madeira River. Presently the chief engineer and director of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, Mr. H. Dose, will leave for that region, to begin the construction of the branch Guajará Mirim—Matto Grosso, to Ribeira Alta, Bolivia, which will be finished within a year and a half, and be about 100 meters long. In addition to this with the prompt construction within a year of the wagon—telegraphic line—roadway from Cuyabá to St. Antonio on the Madeira River, we can easily conclude, that the municipality of St. Antonio on the Madeira River, will indeed become the converging point of these great and strong currents of development of progress and of civilization. In conclusion it should not be forgotten that this territory herein described serves not only for the production of rubber, which there, as in the whole valley of the Amazon, is native and grows according to the laws of nature. It also should be mentioned that cacao and cotton are native, while there can be planted and cultivated, sugar cane, coffee, vanilla, corn, beans, rice, tobacco, potatoes, brazil nut, etc. The Madeira-Mamoré Railway Company has the concession of a vast amount of land along its line, which it proposes to plant in cacao, sugar cane, etc., thus improving these lands. From this description, in which we have endeavored to set forth only the truth, giving the facts concerning the region in question, it can be concluded that the new municipality of St. Antonio on the River Madeira, which actually exports to the markets of the world, via Pará and Manáos, about 2,000,000 kilos of rubber, will in a few years, with immigration and from other causes, export from 10 to 15,000,000 kilos. The author of this article asks indulgence for any shortcomings it may contain, as it was written in the spare moments he could find, while laboriously collecting the samples of rubber and putting them on board the steamer at Manáos for New York. [Illustration: PUTTING THE LAST LAYERS OF MILK ON THE BALL.]