GOLD COAST KEPOKT ON FORESTS. 43 



Species such as the Kaku (Lophira procera) and the N'yankon 

 (llcritiera utilis) have practically disappeared froui these 

 forests, whilst others, such as the Waw-waw (one of the species 

 that has a great distributional range on the Gold Coast), the 

 Off ram, Stei-culia cordifolia, Albizzia Brownei, and the silk- 

 rubber tree (Funtumia dastica) are to be found in much greater 

 abundance than hitherto. The increase in the proportion of 

 Waw-waws to other species has been further intensified by the 

 local custom of protecting it as a " standard ' in the clearings 

 made close to villages. I could get no satisfactory explanation 

 as to why that species and occasionally the Emril and Off ram as 

 well are thus favoured by the inhabitants. 



However, these three species are actually far more abundant 

 in the semi-evergreen or mixed deciduous forests (associated with 

 a drier climate), even where the former are of a great age; and 

 as such their comparative abundance or scarcity is a safe indica- 

 tion by which to gauge the climatic conditions, notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that their growth may have been favoured in par- 

 ticular localities by the action of man, as is the case here. 



I do not think that the change in climate experienced in the 

 lower drainage area of the Tano River is mainly due to the 

 destruction of the forests; it more probably depends to a great 

 extent either on the absence of a well-marked monsoon current 

 or to the absence of those cyclonic movements that usually bring 

 rain during the dry months of the year in other parts of West 

 Africa or to both causes. Xevertheless as this is a hilly part of 

 the country the destruction of the forests is bound to further 

 intensify the effects of a defective or irregular rainfall. As was 

 to be expected from the general character of the vegetation, the 

 water supply of this portion of Upper Wawsaw is far from being 

 as abundant as it is in localities further to the south and south- 

 east. It is not, however, a precarious one, and in the neighbour- 

 hood of the larger streams swampy areas are abundant. The 

 tracts of country still covered with high tropical evergreen forest, 

 though of the modified type just mentioned, are also well watered, 

 and it is only in the areas that have been much subjected to 

 farming that it is scanty. 



This modified type (an intermediate condition between the 

 moist tropical evergreen forests and the mixed deciduous or semi- 

 evergreen forests) extends in a broad belt, as will be described 

 later on, right across upper Denkera to the railway-line between 

 the stations of Dunkwa and Imbrahini. 



The Taiio River itself is a fine large stream about here, and has 

 very few sandbanks visible even at this, the driest, time of the 

 year. It is not deep opposite Tomento and can be forded at most 

 places. A few small patches of " Savannah forest," characterized 

 by the presence of tall species of grasses, are also to be met with 

 along the banks of the stream; they are distant and feeble out- 

 liers of the great Savannah forests of Northern Ashanti, between 

 which, however, and this locality, a very broad and extensive 

 belt of moist evergreen forest intervenes. 



Close to the banks of the river, where we encamped in a moist 

 patch of forest, we saw some Bayas and the Kaku, which is here 



