Forestry in German Colonies. 633 



1,011,420 square miles 



Of all these possessions only East Africa, Kamerun and the 

 South Sea Islands have available supplies of timber, and the 

 Kamerun is perhaps the only one that has enough for export. 



So far, the exports of forest products from all the colonies com- 

 bined have hardly amounted to $500,000 in any one year. 



The extent and value of the forest area in the timbered colonies 

 is still uncertain ; it is only certain that they exist. In Togo, 

 only remnants of once extensive forests remain, and Southwest 

 Africa exhibits only a sparse brushforest. Samoa and the Salo- 

 mons Islands have luxuriant forest growth in the Interior, while 

 the Carolinas, Marianas and Alarshall Islands contain only cocoa 

 palms and camphor trees. The rented territory of Kiautschou is 

 forestless, but successful plantations have been begun here. 



Kamerun (or the Cameroons, as it is called in English) is the 

 most densely forested of the African colonies. It is as yet impos- 

 sible to state with precision the extent of the forest area, especially 

 as it is still doubtful what to call forest and what is simply wood- 

 land. Estimates vary between 15 and 25 million acres. Some 15 

 million acres is tropical, evergreen rainforest, with trees of enor- 

 mous size ; some 250,000 acres are mangrove and bog forest ; and 

 in the higher altitudes "fog" forests are found along the west 

 and south coast in a belt of 60 to 100 miles ; the northeast and 

 middle of the colony being plains country. 



The description of the Kamerun forest, as given by Dr. Jentsch, 



