GOLD COAST KEPOKT ON FORESTS. "25 



"umbrella tree" (Musniuja Sniitltii), the ] )<ili<inili, Waw-waw 

 and the Off ram, Avhich with other species form the irregular, 

 patchy, high forest so characteristic of this secondary growth. 

 Steep hills are not usually selected as sites for farms by the 

 natives when gentler slopes covered with sufficient vegetation are 

 available ; where they occur the forests clothing them are of 

 much greater age and frequently approach the virgin type. 



Large numbers of undersized mahogany and cedar logs were 

 seen lying along the sides of the railway and in the bed of the 

 Uonsa River where the line crosses it. These logs are mainly 

 rejections that the European timber merchants have, on account 

 of the small dimensions of the timber, refused to purchase from 

 the native contractors and owners. It is a pity that such logs 

 which are not worth exporting to Europe should be allowed to 

 1);' wasted in this manner. It would surely pay to send them 

 down the line to the saw-mills, where they could be converted 

 into pieces suitable for the construction of furniture, &c. Perhaps 

 the railway freights are too high to admit of such a use being 

 made of them. Though undersized for the European market the 

 logs are quite suitable for local constructive works. The action 

 of the European timber merchants in rejecting such timber is 

 having a .salutary effect on the native fellers, who are beginning 

 to realize that it does not pay to cut undersized trees. This 

 fact, however, in itself is not sufficient to protect immature trees 

 and does not do away with the necessity for fixing by legislation 

 minimum felling girths for the various species. 



Fairly extensive clearings of the forests are to be seen round 

 the majority of the gold mines situated in the neighbourhood of 

 Tarkwa. The bulk of the fellings have been made in order to 

 supply fuel for the machinery employed in them, though of 

 course a great deal had to be also done in clearing sites for the 

 mining camps. As a general rule the cleared areas first get 

 covered over with a dense growth of the " umbrella tree " and 

 the usual tropical weeds that spring up on such spots. These 

 rdaiits are in turn gradually replaced by forest vegetation, but 

 the process, owing to the htxuriant growth and persistence of 

 Musanga Smithii, is a slow one. Fortunately this species is an 

 evergreen, and its dense foliage affords sufficient protection to the 

 soil to prevent the usual injurious effects following the direct 

 exposure of the former to a tropical sun. Nevertheless such 

 fellings if repeated at too frequent intervals (short felling rota- 

 lion) are liable to be followed in the tropics by marked effects on 

 the climate, and they should in such cases be only carried out 

 under professional supervision. I have dealt with the question 

 of the fuel supply for the mines in some detail in another part 

 of the report. 



Reverting now to our journeys through the forests clothing 

 the basins of the Ankobra and Tano Rivers the first day's march 

 was made to the small village of Hunisu situated on the Huni 

 River, and on the main road between Tarkwa and the mining 

 camps of Prestea. The country in this direction is very hillv, 

 and some well-marked ranges belonging to the s\ steins forming 

 the eastern and western water-partings of the Huni River have 1o 



