44 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



restricted to the moistest localities close to the streams. Xylia 

 Krdnxii on the other hand is getting more numerous and con- 

 spicuous us a member of the forest vegetation. Musanga Smithii 

 appears to be past its optimum; though still numerous, the 

 growth is becoming lanky and the foliage less dense. 



I learnt from one of Mr. Nicholas's native employees that the 

 former has obtained a timber and mining lease of the country 

 ;idjaceiit to the Taiio River from the local chiefs. Some not very 

 formidable rapids are said to exist on that stream near the 

 village of Brimang, and it is proposed to outflank them "by using 

 a traction engine to haul the logs out before they reach the 

 obstructions and to drag them to a point on the river below the 

 latter, whence they can be again thrown into the water. I. 

 fancy the great difficulty to be overcome in this scheme is to get 

 the traction engine as far up the country as Brimang. 



Hearing that there was an extensive bit of uninhabited country 

 situated to the north-west of our camp, on the other side of the 

 river, Mr. Burbridge and myself decided to go and explore it. 

 As no villages were said to exist within two or three days' 

 journey of the centre of the blank space shown on the map we 

 had to leave the bulk of our carriers behind at Tomento and to 

 proceed with a few men and a light equipment and to arrange 

 for food to be sent out to us at regular intervals. 



On crossing the river the right bank was found to be fringed 

 with a narrow belt of very moist evergreen forest, the existence of 

 which is due to the abundant supply of moisture available in the 

 soil close to the stream; shortly after leaving this the path, made 

 by rubber collectors and hunters, that we were following, began 

 to ascend the slopes of a fairly high hill, on a flattened shoulder 

 of which we came across the long deserted site of an old village. 

 The forest on this slope of the hill consists of irregular secondary 

 growth that has sprung up on the old clearings, and contains the 

 usual species characteristic of such localities. Owing, however, 

 to the drier conditions prevailing here such species as the 

 Waw-waw, Offram, Emril and Odouin (another species with an 

 extensive distributional range) are found in greater abundance 

 than in the moister localities to the south-east and south. Near 

 the summit of the hill the growth is much older, but still 

 irregular and of secondary origin ; it contains both the large and 

 small species of Piptadenia, a few Khayas, Pseudocedrelas, Penta- 

 clethra macrophylla, and large numbers of the Waw-waw; a few 

 Off rams were also seen. 



The second tier of vegetation contained a fair number of 

 Funtunvia elastica, some of which have been tapped to death, 

 and the robust climber Carpodinus hirsuta w r hich has also been 

 extensively tapped; in some cases on the "herring-bone" 

 s\ s(rin. The latex of the latter is largely employed for adul- 

 terating that of the former. The resulting coagulum is a rubber 

 that is of much inferior quality to that obtained from the pure 

 Funtumia latex and of slightly better quality than that obtained 

 from the vine. Tn places almost every species of plant that 

 yields latex of any sort whatever, quite irrespective of the fact 

 as to whether the latices contain a large percentage of caoutchouc 

 or not, such as the Odoum, the Nyamedua (Alstonia congensis), 



