208 TIMBER 



country is opened out, great supplies of other timber will 

 be brought from West Africa.. The great Congo Forest, 

 the " dark forest " so ably described by Stanley, covers a 

 compact square area of over 320,000 miles and contains 

 immense supplies of all kinds of valuable timber. 



Amongst the timbers of Nigeria and the Gold Coast are 

 the following, none of which are as yet exported to any 

 extent : 



Iroko, a dark brown timber of uniform colour ; the grain 

 is straight, but coarse and open. It will not take a fine 

 finish, as there is a tendency for it to "pick up" under 

 the plane. A good-sized log of this timber, containing 

 78 cubic ft., was recently sold at Wd. per cubic foot in 

 Liverpool. This is probably Chlorophora exceha. 



Weight about 39 Ibs. per cubic foot. 



Opepe is an excellent wood to work and easy to polish. 

 Weight about 47 Ibs. per cubic foot. 



Oganwo is a kind of cedar, very like Axim mahogany. 



Ekki (Lophira procera) is the African oak, some of which 

 has come in small parcels to the English market. It is 

 very hard, dense, and deep red in colour. The pores are 

 filled with a white deposit. It is a first-class fancy wood. 



There is a timber called greenheart which comes from 

 Sapoli, in colour something like mahogany. 



