Page:National Waterways A Magazine of Transportation, Volume 1.pdf/136

Rh districts into the market is a foregone conclusion. As for the boatmen. they are not like Kentucky whiskey. which is all good. but they compare well with their class in the United States.

The Subvention Edital. under which sixteen different lines of the Companhia Navegacao do Amazonas operate. calls for an annual run of 363 550 miles. and this covers line runs only and not voyages into the Altos Rios. Right here some of our old Mississippi or Ohio River friends will smile and shake their heads skeptically. The answer is. if you don't believe. come down for a little trip of six or eight months. go over the lines. and then be prepared to apologize.

The company named owns and operates sixty-two steamers of the combined freight and passenger class. the total tonnage of the ﬂeet by government measure being 39.000 tons. and. in addition. there are forty-ﬁve other steamers registered at Paré and Manaos under private owner- ship: these. in addition to a vast number of tugs. lighters. barges and latmches make up the ﬂeet of commercial steamers.

No argument is needed to show that there must be a considerable trafﬁc to enable the number of steamboats named above to pay their owners a satisfactory retum on the money invested. Up stream. the tonnage consists largely of merchandise and foodstuffs. Down stream. rubber. Brazil nuts and cocoa form the bulk of trafﬁc. with rubber leading in quantity and value. It is conservatively estimated that for every ton of rubber that comes down the river. twenty-ﬁve tons of merchandise must go back up to supply the people who are in the forests gathering borracha. So long as the Paré rubber remains near its present price of $1.25 per pound. there is no question of supplies coming in. and the statement is made with some regret that ninety-ﬁve cent. of all merchandise is imported. These imports come from Germany. England. the United States. Portugal. Spain and France. As these nations are named in the order of their position in the foreign trade of Brazil. it will be seen that we rank third and if proper effort be put forth and ships and banking facilities be

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