498 REPLACEMENT OF THE ANCIENT E. AFRICAN FOREST 



That these are not purely new j^rowth, but originally. iM-ol)aljly. 

 the remnant of a former general continuity between Chipete and 

 Chirinda is suggested by the presence till, some years ago, of 

 a couple of old decayed trees, by the fact that the destruction 

 of the little ])atches (in no way worth protecting) has gone on 

 till nearly nothing- is left of them but a few sfjuare yards of 

 rank green grass and cree])ers in each place, and by an examina- 

 tion oi the surrounding vegetation with the usual local succes- 

 sion in mind. This last stiggests the former connection of the 

 three as a single, straight strip of forest, and the latter's yet 

 earlier connection with a Chipete far larger than at present. 



An examination of the low, erect, so-called " Sand -apple " 

 scrub (Parimirium ciiratcUa^fcVuim), which nearly every- 

 where clothes these hills, bears all this out. and indicates further 

 facts, in a verv remarkable way. For, whatever agency — their 

 own once more abundant ]>arents or some animal that distri- 

 buted the stones — once sowed these little sand-ap])les broadcast 

 and ubiquitous over the face of the country, has obviously 

 ceased to exist many years ago. Now the sand-apple will just 

 germinate in forest, but it won't live there ; so that those areas 

 that were covered with forest at the time the sowing ceased should 

 to-day show no sand-apples. Actually, a most clearly defined 

 bare ring of this kind surrounds Chipete, and others surround 

 Chirinda itself (with much country to its south-west), the 

 group of three little patches referred to above, a piece of ground 

 between these and the former, big Chipete, and — a further link, 

 taking us to within 200 yards of Chirinda — a long, narrow piece 

 of ground with occasional suggestive vegetation between these 

 same little patches and the latter forest. I may say at once that 

 neither ditterences in the soil, or in its humus or water-con- 

 tents, nor any (^ther factor except the one I stiggest, has proved 

 at all capable of accounting for the sharp demarcation, in these 

 l)laces, between the gmund that is crammed with Parinarium 

 and that which has none. 



In general, the " Sand-apple line " seems to show that the 

 main body of Chijjete at the time indicated swept down far 

 nearer to Chirinda than it does at present. Tt also ( contrary 

 to expectation based on the lie of the ground) suggests that the 

 fires worked in between the forests from the head of the kloof, 

 along the broad sandstone area that still carries the disappearing 

 connecting-links I have described, and that the latest point of 

 junction between the two forests was at the point indicated by 

 the information received from the old Kafifir, along a ridge 

 characterized by dolerite. This illustrates the fact already re- 

 If erred to. that forest tends to disappear from sandstone first. 

 Further, if the latest point of junction was acttially at the spot 

 suggested. Chipete would have formed a fold of Chirinda. and 

 its native name, meaning *' the fold," would j^erhaps be ex- 

 l)lained. Natives questioned as to its origin have always said 

 they do not know — that the name was handed down to them by 

 their forefathers. 



