138 BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN AFRICA. 



acres, apart from 27,500 acres in the Transkei which have 

 not yet been reserved ; or together 791 square miles. This 

 represents not quite "3 per cent, of the area of the Colony 

 (276,995 square miles). The population was as follows: — 



In 1881 721,000 inhabitants. 



In 1891 1,527,000 



In 1901 2,409,804 



Hence there was, in 1901, only one-fifth of an acre of forest 

 land for every inhabitant, an area altogether insufficient for 

 the supply of the people and the country generally, especially 

 as the population is rapidly increasing. This is borne out by 

 the trade returns which show that the net imports of timber 

 have already risen to a value of about iJ450,000 a year, and 

 that they are still rapidly rising. 



All these things had to be considered in shaping the forest 

 policy of Cape Colony. An examination of the natural forests 

 showed that of a great number of species only about six were 

 of economic value. These were : — 



Two species of Yellow-wood. 



Podocarpus elongaia 



,, Thunbergii . 



Ocatea huUata ... ... Stinkwood. 



Olea laurifoUa ... ... Black Ironwood. 



Pteroxi/lon utile ... ... Sneezewood. 



Callitris arhorea ... ... The Clanwilliam Cedar. 



The two yellow-woods yielded nearly all the building timber 

 used by the early settlers, and it still represents about three- 

 quarters of the commercial timber in the dense indigenous 

 forest, which stretches in a broken belt along the slopes 

 of the coast mountains in Cape Colony and to the north- 

 east of the Transvaal. Stinkwood, black ironwood and 

 sneezewood all yield a hard timber. The Clanwilliam cedar 

 is the most useful of the indigenous timber trees, easy to work, 

 seasons well and is durable. Unfortunately, the cedar woods 



