ADVENTURES IN THE MAHOGANY FORESTS 



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easily accessible along the banks of floating rivers and 

 the logs could be put into the rivers at a very small cost, 

 but now, light railways have to be constructed and the 

 logs have to be dragged miles before they can be placed 

 on the internal waterways. 



How little does the average person, living in civiliza- 

 tion, realize the risks and privations that the white man 

 has continually to undergo in his search for the big ma- 

 hoganies. So much has been said recently of improved 

 conditions of living in the tropics that many people who 

 know nothing about the country, look upon Nigeria as 

 being almost a health resort. It is nevertheless a serious 

 fact that these forest regions of the Southern Provinces 

 are still extremely unhealthy. Sanitation has been im- 

 proved in the towns, and thanks to the Medical Depart- 

 ment the deadly anopheles mosquitoes have been almost 

 entirely banished from certain parts, but it is impossible 

 to alter the insidious climate of the tropical bush, or 

 completely destroy its insect pests. The towns may have 

 been cleaned up, but the rain forests which produce the 

 best mahoganies are still the "white man's grave." Every 

 timber prospector has to take his chance in the fight 

 against fever and a hundred and one risks too numerous 

 to describe. 



Native tree-finders are employed to do the prelim- 

 inary prospecting — men born in the bush and who are 

 uncannily familiar with their own immediate surround- 

 ings, and are well acquainted with the trees required by 

 the White Man. These native tree-finders are specialists, 



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