^ Fauna : Mammals 



in the country and patience in investigation will soon reward 

 the traveller with a glimpse of some of the most interesting 

 examples of the African fauna. 



In its fauna and flora Liberia, though it is not strikingly 

 delimited by a geographical boundary from the rest of West 

 Africa, nevertheless possesses a somewhat peculiar character, 

 because in many respects it is the culmination of the West 

 African region. It is here that the West African forest reaches 

 its most extended development. Yet it is cut off by hundreds 

 of miles from the next great forest region to the east, the 

 country between Old Calabar, the Cameroons, and the Upper 

 Congo. It is therefore the refuge (perhaps) of a few strange 

 lingering forms that have died out in the deforested regions 

 of the Gold Coast and Dahome, or it has developed in course 

 of time a few species peculiar to its own forests. Naturally 

 enough, the Liberian district of the West African sub-region 

 is not strictly confined within the political boundaries of the 

 Liberian Republic. Liberia in the zoographical sense includes 

 a portion of the eastern hinterland of Sierra Leone, and crosses 

 the Cavalla River into the territory of the French Ivory Coast. 

 In this direction it would seem to be cut off from the Ashanti 

 forests by the intervening grassy plateaux behind the Ivory 

 Coast, as well as by the forest destruction which has taken 

 place to a greater extent amongst the agricultural peoples of the 

 Ivory and Gold Coasts. Liberian forests on the west and 

 north-west are separated from the forest region of Portuguese 

 and French Guinea by the highlands of Futa Jalon. 



The mammalian fauna of Liberia may perhaps, without 

 offence, be called " Miocene " in the sense that it has many 

 points of resemblance with the fauna of France and Southern 

 Germany during the Miocene period. Of course there are no 

 Miocene formations in Liberia, a country with a petrology 

 VOL. n 673 II 



