GOLD COAST REPORT ON FORESTS. 45 



various species of Ficus, Funtumia afric-ana, several kinds of 

 Landolphia, Carpodiniis, Clitandra, &c., is tapped and the 

 latices then mixed together and coagulated. The result is a 

 rubber of very poor quality. 



After surmounting the hill mentioned above we got on to a 

 main range, the crest of which we followed for several hours, 

 Avith many ascents and descents, before we reached water and 

 formed our camp for the night. This range is clothed with the 

 same type of forest, but the latter is open in places and contains 

 an increased proportion of Stereidia cor di folia and Stereulia 

 Barteri, the latter of which made its appearance in any large 

 numbers for the first time. The soil is dry and rather rocky, and 

 is covered in places with a dense tangled growth of a species of 

 woody leguminous climber that I have only seen on this ridge. 

 Some stems of the " Flint wood " tree that had been cut by the 

 rubber collectors and were lying about in a moist patch of forest 

 were found by me to be quite rotten. I could easily push my 

 walking-stick through them, so I very much doubt whether the 

 wood of this species is as durable as it is made out to be by the 

 European miners. It appears to coppice freely, judging from 

 the healthy-looking shoots that have sprung up from the stumps 

 left in the ground. 



The night at the first camp was quite cold, and during the 

 whole of our stay in the hilly country to the west of the Tano 

 River the climate was found to be distinctly bracing. 



The second camp was situated in a deep valley some few hours' 

 journey to the north-west of the last one, on a tributary of the 

 Tano River. Here water is abundant and of very good quality, 

 coming as it does from a hill torrent. The valley itself is narrow 

 and closely shut in with hills, but as it is very well watered the 

 forest vegetation is that characteristic of a moist locality. On 

 ascending the hills, however, it becomes of a much drier type, 

 though still belonging to the tropical evergreen formation, in 

 which such trees as Stereulia cordifolia and S. Barteri are far 

 from uncommon. Some fine examples of the Tiama-Tiama 

 (species of P seudocedrela) and the ordinary Dubini were also seen 

 in the hill forests, which in places are composed of trees of lofty 

 growth, amongst which some exceptionally fine specimens of 

 Antiaris toxicaria var. africana, Cyanothyrsus ogea, and the 

 large species of Piptadenia may be specially mentioned. 



These hill forests are much more open than the moister ones 

 in the valley lower down, and it is possible to walk about under 

 them without the continual use of the " machet." The soil is 

 also less moist and covered with a fairly deep layer of dry leaves 

 that render silent walking almost impossible ; in this respect the 

 forests are similar to the semi-evergreen or mixed deciduous type 

 belonging to the middle zone of vegetation, the zone that in- 

 tervenes between the open savannahs and tree savannah forma- 

 tions of the hinterland and the moist tropical evergreen forests of 

 the maritime zone, where the monsoon currents are strongly 

 marked. On rocky portions of the ridges dense tangled masses 

 of lianes, consisting of rubber vines belonging to the genera 

 Clitanrfra, and Landolphia and of Combretaceous 



