KKI'LACE.MiCXT OF Till-: AXCiKNT K. AFRICAN FOREST 5O3 



area, of pyrophytic trees and shrubs. Such perfect adaptation 

 .to a condition of annual fires as we see in these and the differen- 

 tiation into numerous dau_<^hter si)ecies. which ])rol:)able pyrophytes 

 have already undergone, will hardlv have come about in less than 

 verv many thousands of years. The fact may have an interesting 

 bearing- on the antiquity of man in this ]-)art of the w<^rld. for, 

 now at any rate, no regular tires take ]>lace excepting through 

 his ag^ency. In the days when our i.gneous rocks were forced to 

 "he surface things ma\- have been different, and the i)vrophytes 

 might have made some be.ainning llie analogy of the veg^eta- 

 . lion in areas still actively volcanic should be useful here.* Of 

 course, if such a plant community exists in anv ])lace which can 

 be stated confidently never to have undergt)ne a fire-period, the 

 argument goes. Meantime. I am inclined to regard it as C(^n- 

 clusive. 



It must be remembered, I think, that differences in the num- 

 bers and hunting proclivities of the natives and the number of 

 the lions do not exhaust the possible factors that mav have pro- 

 duced fluctuation in the ungulate i)opulation. The rinderi)est, 

 which so reduced the numbers of some of our larger buck, is 

 unlikely to have been the first epidemic that has swept through 

 them. The process of immunization to the effects of tr\panosomi- 

 asis mtist alone have taken long, and led to great reductions 

 in their numbers, though it may, of course, have been completed 

 before tires began. The immunity, iif any. of the older African 

 races of man should have a bearing here. 



The actual ]>rocess of forest destruction is well described 

 in the accotint of Whyte's exploration of Milanji in iS^^r, 

 already mentioned : " It is de])lorable to witness the devastating 

 eft'ects of the annual bush-tires, from which even this loftv and 

 all btit inaccessible retreat is not exempt. Dtiring the dry 

 months of August and Se])tember these tires, originating from 

 the villages on the lower slopes of the mountain, gradually creep 

 up the precipitous cliffs from tuft to tuft of <JTass until at last 

 they reach the grassy plateau. Once there the work of destruc- 

 tion is rapid. The tire rages along the table-land and eats its 

 wav along the edges o'f the remaining belts of forest, annually 

 sc<irching, if not burning, the bark and timber of the outside 

 trees, and killing otitright the young seedlings. In excei)tionally 

 dry seasons it appears that these fires have even penetrated some 

 of the damp iforests. and hundreds of giant cypresses lay pros- 

 trate . . generallv burnt right through at the base of the 

 tree." 



These are the two stages — first scorched, later burnt into 

 or through. The process of destruction in ordinary years is 



* Of tlie plates illustrating Dr. Tempest Anderson's account of the 

 volcanoes of Guatemala (Geoii. Jul., May. lyoS), one (PI. II. "Santa 

 Maria, from the slopes of Ccrvo Queniado " ) might represent a scene in 

 the poorer pyrophytic wooding hetween Melsctter and Umtali. Another 

 (PI. VII. " Tropical forest on the slopes of Attilan ") is exactly Chirinda, 

 "witlKHit the hig trees. 



