152 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



of the Niger Delta is brought. Degema, Bugama, Bakana, Okrika 

 and Port Harcourt are inland ports all reached from Bonny, situated 

 at the mouth of the river of the same name. Opobo, on the Imo, is 

 yet another inland port with a 14-foot bar at the river mouth. Eket 

 is the small port for the Kwaiebo River, whence small steamers run to 

 Calabar. Oron, on the western side of the estuary, is also a port worthy 

 of mention. Though Calabar is some 15 miles above the junction of 

 the Akwayefe, Kwa and Cross Rivers, it is the chief port of Eastern 

 Nigeria. It is situated on the side of a hill some 200 feet high on the 

 bank of the Calabar River, which is half a mile wide at this point. 



Turning now to the next type of forest met with after leaving the 

 i^iangrove zone, the thick, heavy, evergreen rain forest is seen. On 

 the western side in the province of Abeokuta it has very largely been 

 destroyed, only comparatively small isolated areas remaining. In the 

 Ondo province, however, some of the most extensive and heaviest timber 

 areas of this type are found. A good network of rivers, such as the 

 Ogun, Ona, Oshun, Oni, Shasha and Owenna, when flooded, form 

 the outlets for timber worked in these localities. In the northern 

 part of the Warri province and the southern part of the Benin province 

 large representative areas of the evergreen type are found, though there 

 they tend to mingle with the tall, mixed deciduous forests. To a 

 small extent in the Owerri, but to the largest extent in the Calabar 

 province, the rain forests find their finest development, culminating 

 in the Oban Hills on the eastern side of the latter provinces. The 

 rainfall there is 175 inches per annum. 



The Sasswood is one of the first trees to appear when the mangrove 

 swamp gives way to the evergreen forest. Other large trees are the 

 mahoganies, found chiefly on the old banks ; red ironwood, with its 

 brilliant red fresh leaves in the late autumn. In fact, these leaves 

 are often taken for flowers, owing to their very bright colour. They 

 gradually, however, assume a dark green colour as the season advances. 

 An unidentified species of gum-copal which grows to colossal dimensions 

 is found scattered rather diffusely and curiously in these areas. Differ- 

 ent kinds of ebony, with wood varying from brown to green black, are 

 seen throughout the zone, though, as with other trees, a different 

 species is found in the different provinces ; on the whole, the blackest 

 wood is found where the rainfall is heaviest. 



The mixed deciduous zone, which consists both of deciduous and 

 evergreen trees, mingles and gradually develops at the northern edge 

 of the evergreen rain forest ; in many cases the one goes over into the 

 other almost imperceptibly, and it is only perhaps after half a day's 

 inarch that one realizes that one has left the evergreen type behind 

 and reached the forests where half the trees lose their leaves every 

 year. A very large development of these forests is found in the Abeo- 

 kuta, Oyo, Jebu-ode and Ondo provinces. Very heavy inroads have 



