Li beria <*- 



assail the indigenous natives of Liberia, who when they have 

 succeeded in killing any bird, beast, or reptile eat it up even 

 to its skin. In fact, this scarcity of wild life dates a good deal 

 from the time when guns and gunpowder were introduced into 

 Liberia. The elephant is never heard of now within fifty miles 

 of the coast. 



Insects may be included among the classes which are 

 scarce (to the eye). This is a fortunate deprivation, as nearly 

 all insects are enemies to man's welfare or comfort. But the 

 scarcity of butterflies in the coast regions is a loss to one's 

 assthetic enjoyment. Nowhere on the Liberian littoral have 

 I seen the lovely spectacles that greet one so often in the 

 equatorial woodlands of the Uganda Protectorate and in parts 

 of the Congo region, where myriads of butterflies — scarlet, 

 mauve, white, blue, opalescent, green, brown, and black — flit 

 along the path before the traveller and settle in hundreds on 

 moist places, scattering the ground as though with the gorgeous 

 fallen petals of innumerable flowers. Termites (white ants) 

 appear from early records to have troubled the first settlers on 

 Cape Mesurado, but nowadays one never hears of them in 

 Monrovia, nor are they a plague in any part of Liberia that 

 has come under my notice. Mosquitoes are frequently absent 

 from great stretches of forest country or from most of the 

 coast towns. The one undoubted insect pest of the country 

 is the bellicose driver ant {Ammma) which is very abundant 

 in the forest regions, and whose armies are perpetually crossing 

 the narrow paths and interrupting the progress of caravans 

 by their savage attacks on all who dare to pass anywhere in 

 their vicinity. 



But part of the apparent scarcity of animal life is due to 

 the denseness of the forest or bush, which enables beasts, birds, 

 and reptiles to hide themselves from persecuting man. Residence 



672 



