During the following days the jangada passed on the right the mouths
of the rivers Camara, Aru, and Yuripari, whose waters instead of
flowing into the Amazon run off to the south to feed the Rio des
Purus, and return by it into the main river. At five o'clock on the
evening of the 10th of August they put into the island of Cocos.
They there passed a _"seringal."_ This name is applied to a
caoutchouc plantation, the caoutchouc being extracted from the
_"seringueira"_ tree, whose scientific name is _siphonia elastica._
It is said that, by negligence or bad management, the number of these
trees is decreasing in the basin of the Amazon, but the forests of
seringueira trees are still very considerable on the banks of the
Madeira, Purus, and other tributaries.
There were here some twenty Indians collecting and working the
caoutchouc, an operation which principally takes place during the
months of May, June, and July.
After having ascertained that the trees, well prepared by the river
floods which have bathed their stems to a height of about four feet,
are in good condition for the harvest, the Indians are set to work.
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