no2 LIBERIA 



and Chile; (5) Spain and Italy; (6) Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom. 

 In December 1912 the Department of Finance deposited in the Bank of the Republic, 

 Caracas, subject to the orders of the respective legations, the balance of the Debt ac- 

 knowledged in the protocols of Washington of 1903, and amounting to 349,587 bolivars. 



(PERCY F. MARTIN.) 



LIBERIA 1 



Since 1909-10 the frontier with the French possessions has been limited on the spot 

 by a Franco-Liberian Commission, on which the principal Liberian representatives were 

 two Dutch officers, Naval Captain S. P. L'Honore Naber and Naval Lieutenant J. J. 

 Moret. On the west the frontier with the adjoining British protectorate of Sierra 

 Leone has been changed. Liberia has ceded to Great Britain the small district of 

 Kanre Lahun (a name which should really be pronounced and written Kare Laun), 

 which therefore brings the frontier of Sierra Leone in a loop farther to the north-east. 

 On the other hand, Sierra Leone has ceded to Liberia the district of equivalent size 

 known as the Morro Forest, between the upper River Mano (formerly the boundary) 

 and its western tributary the Morro. This boundary is altogether more satisfactory 

 as it no longer subdivides tribes into different sections under Liberia and Great Britain. 

 It gives to Great Britain better trading access to the river Makona (towards which the 

 Baiima railway will now be carried) and yields to Liberia the whole of the great Gora 

 Forest, valuable for its rubber and timber. 



With regard to the flora of Liberia, a few fresh discoveries have been made by Mr. Bunt- 

 ing. Dr. Otto Stapf of Kew has pointed out the existence in Liberia of a valuable fodder 

 grass, the Pennisetum purpureum. This is likely to prove very useful as clearings in the 

 forest increase and greater attention is given to stock raising. From the apparent absence 

 of tsetse fly in much of the Liberian hinterland, and the consequent success which attends 

 cattle breeding, it is hoped that as the country settles down into a peaceable condition the 

 attention of the natives may be more and more concentrated on stock-rearing as well as on 

 agriculture; for the question of food supply in West Africa is becoming a very important 

 one. It is absurd that Liberia should import such enormous quantities of rice, meat and 

 fish, when all these things could be obtained locally if the attention of her inhabitants could 

 be concentrated on the land and the waters of the coast, instead of being almost entirely 

 absorbed by factious political questions, slave-raiding and civil war. 



In regard to the fauna of Liberia, the first capture and export of living specimens of the 

 pigmy Liberian hippopotamus were made in 1912 by a German big-game hunter, Major 

 Schomburgk, of Hamburg. Two hundred pits were dug by this energetic naturalist (who 

 was assisted in his explorations of Liberia by his wife), and five pigmy hippos in excellent 

 condition were captured, quickly became tame, and were distributed between the zoological 

 gardens of the United States and Germany through the agency of Carl Hagenbeck. For 

 the first time naturalists were able to get a clear idea of the aspect of the pigmy hippopotamus 

 when alive. It was seen to differ from its larger relation not only in size (it is little bigger 

 than a large pig), but in having a more slender muzzle, a more arched profile along the line 

 of the nose, and a less wrinkled body. It stands proportionately higher in the legs, and is 

 obviously much more active on land than Hippopotamus amphibius. According to Major 

 Schomburgk's researches this pigmy hippopotamus, though well able to swim, does not 

 spend much of its time in the water, but leads a life in the dense forest and sleeps on land, 

 very often making long burrows or tunnels in the dense herbage or undergrowth of the 

 jungle. With its fore-feet, in which only the two front hoofs ordinarily touch the ground, 

 it is able to do a great deal of burrowing, and will rapidly conceal itself from sight by digging 

 hollows in the mud, into which it subsides. It would also seem from Schomburgk's researches 

 that Liberia possessed a pigmy form of elephant as well as a hippopotamus, somewhat akin 

 in the shape and size of its cars to the well-marked small variety found in the Cameroon. 



As regards minerals, an important discovery of genuine diamonds was made in the 

 western part of Liberia in 1909-10, near the lower St. Paul River, further stones being found 

 in 1911. The diamonds were discovered by agents of a British company engaged in con- 

 structing a motor road due east from the river to the coffee-planting districts. Alluvial 

 gold had been discovered by the same company, and it was in the search for gold that dia- 

 monds were obtained from the gravel of small streams. These diamonds are of good water, 

 and very similar to those of Brazil. So far no very large stone has been found, but it is 

 believed that such as have been exported (about 154 in number down to 1911) indicate the 

 existence of a matrix in this part of Liberia which may quite possibly furnish stones rivalling 

 those of Brazil and Guiana countries which greatly resemble Liberia in their petrology. 



See E. B. xxi, pp. 539-42. 



