■'i""-'] Southern Nigeria : its Natural History, &c. 37 



SOUTHERN NIGERIA: ITS NATURAL HISTORY, cScC. 

 A SPECIAL meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria 

 was held at the Independent Church Hall on Tuesday evening, 

 3rd June, for the purpose of hearing a lecture by Mr. A. E. 

 Kitson, F.G.S., lately principal of the Mineral Survey of 

 Southern Nigeria. The president, Dr. J. A. Leach, occupied 

 the chair, and there was a large attendance of members and 

 friends. The lecturer, who, though absent from Victoria for 

 some years, still retains his membership of the Club, delivered 

 a very interesting address, which was well illustrated with a 

 large series of lantern slides. The geographical and geological 

 features of the country and the distribution of the tribes were 

 briefly indicated, and general remarks made on the climate, 

 rainfall, &c. A short description was given of the physical 

 character of — (i) the crystalline area of Yorubaland and the 

 eastern boundary, with its numerous hills, isolated or in 

 clusters, standing in dissected peneplains ; (2) the low-lying 

 coastal belt, with its mangrove-fringed lagoons and channels ; 

 (3) the sandy coastal plain ; (4) the sand-capped Udi plateau, 

 with its Cretaceous coal-bearing rocks. Several of the inter- 

 esting types of vegetation were mentioned, among them being 

 the large white lilies and the mauve ground-orchids of the open 

 forests, the lovely white tree-orchid, the valuable timber trees 

 (mahogany and iroko), the wine, oil, and coconut-palms, the 

 cocoa, kola, paw-paw, and rubber trees. A description was 

 given of the oil-palm and the mode of extracting the palm oil 

 of commerce from the fruit. The export value in 1911 of this 

 oil and the kernels of the nut was given as £4,200,000. 

 Most of the people are agriculturists, and their principal food 

 is yams, roasted, or boiled and mashed, or ground into flour. 

 These tubers, their modes of cultivation, preparation, and 

 consumption, were specially described. The fauna is repre- 

 sented by most of the animals of tropical Africa. Among 

 exceptions may be mentioned the rhinoceros and the giraffe, 

 while the lion is rare in the extreme north-west. Among the 

 specially interesting forms are the manatee, the otter, the 

 pangolin, and the hyrax. Fish occur in great numbers, and 

 are of many species, perhaps the most interesting being the 

 weird lung-fishes of the stinking mud-flats of the mangrove 

 region. Freshwater oysters and mussels are common in many 

 streams. Crocodiles are plentiful in most rivers. There are 

 numerous lizards and snakes of various kinds, and a few 

 chameleons. Among the non-venomous snakes are pythons — 

 one kind sacred to the Ibos — and the pretty light-green tree 

 snake. The venomous snakes include the deadly puff-adder, 

 which ejects an irritating fluid into an aggressor's eye, causing 

 agony and temporary blindness ; the black mamba, and the 



