62 
Mr. Thompson makes a very interesting and apt comparison 
between the forests of the Gold Coast and those of the Southern 
Shan States of Burma, and it is possible that the policy followed in 
the East might prove suitable for the conditions which obtain in 
West Africa. Of the arrangements suggested, perhaps the most 
important are those relating to forest taxes, the sale of timber, and 
the revenues derived therefrom. 
In concluding this section on the protection of the forest, it is 
conceded that something might be done in the way of persuading 
chiefs to look after the forests but it is only a method of chance 
depending on the influence of a few officials and is a slow process, 
“meanwhile the forests are being rapidly destroyed.” It may 
confidently be asserted that no real progress has or ever will be 
made in Forest Conservancy unless the Supreme Government 
reserves to itself the right to direct and regulate its application. 
It is only the Government that can have the tenacity of purpose to 
carry the forests through the various vicissitudes and bring them 
into an organised condition capable of ensuring a sustained and 
increasing yield of produce in the future 
In the first part of the Report detailed information of the forests 
and of the condition of the country is given on which the general 
account of the second part is largely based. 
The drying up of streams, which is also associated with forest 
destruction, has actually occurred fairly recently in two instances 
near Aburi. In some cases the natives in clearing the forest leave 
some of the largest trees as standards and on such ground a tangled 
mass of vegetation springs up. Conspicuous among trees in such 
secondary growth is the “umbrella tree” Mussanga Smithii 
(Plate 24), which grows rapidly and has a dense canopy of leaves 
and though the value of the forest as far as produce is concerned is 
lost, still the ground is not exposed to the dessicating action of sun 
and wind or to the force of the rain and the physical effects of 
complete forest destruction do not oceur. The umbrella tree, 
however, has this disadvantage that owing to its dense shade the 
growth of more valuable species is delayed. 
_At the commencement of Chapter ii., useful information is 
given as to some of the more important timber trees, such as 
one of the shingle trees, the Khayas, Sarcocephalus esculentus, - 
and others. Of the “ Waw-waw,” Triplochiton Johnsonii, 
Mr. Thompson remarks “It is quite good enough in quality to 
replace the imported pitch-pine and it is extremely abundant ; 
