Rubber passes through many hands during its long journey to market. First it has to be sent to the chief port of the district where it is obtained. In Brazil this means a long journey by river direct to Para, or to Para via Manaos, with a break of journey at that busy up-country river port. Some of the Brazilian rubber has to be taken 250 miles in open boats, along a course that contains many stretches of dangerous rapids, and is blocked by a number of falls. It then has to go on by steamer for 500 miles before it gets to Para. And some of the Brazilian pelles are made into rafts, which are taken downstream to the nearest point where the pelles can be transferred to a steamer. In Ceylon, the principal distribution depôt is the port of Colombo; in Malaya, most of the rubber leaves home via Singapore or Port Swettenham. Plantation rubber travels in packing-cases to local ports by rail, by river in little Noah’s Ark boats thatched with palm-leaves, or by road in bullock-carts. Both wild and plantation rubber get a break of journey at some local port, where there are warehouses in which the material can be stored in order that it may be submitted to a searching examination. It has to be weighed, sampled, and sorted according to quality. Plantation rubber can be very easily sampled and graded, because its form is such that it can be easily handled and seen through. But much of the wild product is sent to market in bulky masses. It is hard work cutting through the samples which are selected to undergo the test of seeing whether they are as good through and through as they are on the surface, or whether they contain any makeweight, such as bits of old iron or rope. When the time comes for the raw material to continue its journey to market, it is put aboard an ocean-going steamer, which takes it overseas to the port where it is to be sold. Here again it is received into a warehouse. Once more it is weighed and sampled. The samples are sent to manufacturers, with a catalogue, stating that so many pounds of rubber, corresponding to such or such a sample, will be sold by auction on a certain date at a certain market. The rubber itself, in its packing-cases or sackcloth covering, is taken down to vaults, where it is stored until it is claimed by whoever buys it at the auction. Vaults are used as storage quarters for raw rubber in order that the material may be kept in an even temperature; for not until that material is within a rubber goods factory is it made climate-proof by vulcanization. We can stand outside any rubber goods factory and watch the material being taken within its doors; that is to say, we can see big boxes and bulky canvas packages being taken in, and we know now that their contents consist of rubber pelles, crêpe, sheets, biscuits, or blocks, which were once white milk, and are now a solid material that is yellow, brown, grey or black in colour. [Illustration: _C. W. Kerr & Co., Kandy, Ceylon_