94 Notes ON SOUTHERN NIGERIA. 
miles; the native population is estimated at about three and a 
half millions. 
The imports for 1904 were valued at £1,792,000; the 
exports at £1,718,000. 
Forcados, the principal port, is about eighteen days’ voyage 
from Liverpool. Steamers call at the Canary Islands, Sierra 
Leone, Monrovia, the Gold Coast, and Lagos. 
The River Niger flows north and south through the Pro- 
tectorate, and issues through many mouths connected by a 
network of creeks into the Gulf of Guinea. The Cross river 
forms a similar estuary in the east. 
The region intersected by the creeks and outlets of these 
estuaries is swampy, and has few native settlements. 
Beyond this lies the most fertile region of the Protectorate, 
rich in palm trees and well cultivated. It has low, rolling hills. 
This extends as far as Ungwana, on the Cross River, and 
Onitsha, on the River Niger, where the true African continent 
may be said to begin. Beyond these points we have rock 
scenery. 
In the Eastern part of the Protectorate is an interesting 
region of igneous rock formation, with granite, gneiss, and similar 
rocks. Here there are mountains forming part of the Kamerun 
system. Generally speaking, the rock formation of the remainder 
of the Protectorate is of sedimentary origin. 
The principal exports are palm oil and palm kernels. 
Timber is a great and increasingly important article of trade. 
The cultivation of cotton is experimentally undertaken. 
The oil palm grows in profusion in all parts of the Pro- 
tectorate. Palm nuts grow in clusters of two or three feet in 
height. Oil is expressed from the fleshy, outer covering of the 
nuts. This leaves the hard nut, which, when cracked, yields 
the palm kernel. 
Formerly the palm oil trade was largely in the hands of 
native middlemen, who collected the oil in the up-country 
markets and brought it to the European traders. Now the 
up-country traders are learning to bring their own produce direct 
to the European trading stations. 
Trading firms at the present day have large establishments 
upon land. Formerly hulks were used. | When trade was first 
established ships went round the various trading towns and gave 
