62 THE FOREST RESOURCES OF THE WORLD. 



The prevailing species is oak; cork oak occupies 290,000 acres; all 

 other oaks, 117,500 acres. 



The island of Madagascar has about 25,000,000 acres of forest, or 

 19 per cent of the total land area. 



All other African possessions of France contain valuable species, 

 but the extent of the forests is little known. 



BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN AFRICA. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



The total forest area of South Africa in May, 1905, was 640,502 

 acres. a This area includes the whole of South Africa south of the 

 Zambesi, with the exception of Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa, 

 for which data are wanting. While there is forest of some eco- 

 nomic importance in the Portuguese territory and on the Rhodesian 

 plateau, none of the regions has any appreciable area of dense 

 forest comparable to that of Natal, Cape Colony, and Transvaal. 

 This forest area is distributed as follows among the different colo- 

 nies: Cape Colony, 529,502 acres; Natal, excluding scrub forest, 

 90,000 acres (old Natal, 40,000, and Zululand, 50,000); Swaziland, 

 1,000 acres; and Transvaal, 20,000 acres; making a total of 640,502 

 acres. 



Deducting from this total area the very poorly stocked cedar for- 

 ests, there remains 524,408 acres of yellow wood (Podocarpus elon- 

 gate, and P. ihunbergii), the most valuable species of South Africa. 

 Of this amount, 23,535 acres are artificial plantations. As may be 

 seen from these figures, Cape Colony contains the largest amount of 

 forest, which represents not quite 0.3 per cent of the total area of the 

 colony. The forest area per inhabitant in 1901 was 0.22 of an acre, 

 which is not sufficient to supply the needs of the people. 



Very little definite information exists in regard to the forest areas 

 in the other British possessions in Africa, such as the west coast of 

 Africa, the East Africa Protectorate, Uganda Protectorate, Central 

 Africa Protectorate, the Soudan, and Mauritius, beyond the amounts 

 of exports of rubber and gums. One thing is certain, and that is that 

 they do not contain sufficient timber to supply their own needs. 



THE SAHARA AND EQUATORIAL ZONE. 



Melard divides Africa, in accordance with the distribution of rain- 

 fall, into four zones, parallel to the equator the Atlas and Mediter- 

 ranean slopes, the Sahara, the Equatorial zone, and the South Africa 

 zone. 



The Atlas and Mediterranean slopes comprise Tunis and Algeria 

 and the other French colonies, the forest resources of which have 

 been discussed above. The South African zone includes the British 

 and Portuguese possessions, the forest resources of which have also 

 been discussed. 



The Sahara, with the exception of small oases where palms are cul- 

 tivated, has no forests. Egypt belongs to the Sahara zone; it has 



a Forests in South Africa, D. E. Hutchins, Capetown, South Africa; from Science in 

 South Africa, August, 1905. 



