GOLD COAST EEPORT ON FORESTS. 55 



Reverting now to the forests themselves, the first one examined 

 in Ashanti is that known as the Tsifufu Forest, situated to the 

 west of the railway, between the 104th and 107th miles. This 

 forest is drained on its eastern side by the Jym River and on the 

 west by the Oh'na stream, and its feeder the Subinsu ; the ground 

 is hilly and culminates on the north in Kemp's Peak, a high 

 prominent hill from which an extensive view of the surrounding 

 country can be obtained. The forest is being exploited by 

 Messrs. Nicholas and Brett, but at present operations are con- 

 fined to the eastern portions adjacent to the railway. 



On this aspect (eastern) of the hills the forests are of secondary 

 growth, the larger Khayas (mahoganies) and Pseudocedrelas 

 (cedars) having been left as " standards " when the ground was 

 first cleared for farms. The secondary growth, however, is fairly 

 old and the leaf canopy is now nearly complete. Deciduous- 

 leafed trees such as Sterculia Barteri, Sterculia cordifolia, 

 Ricinodendron africanus, the Tiama-Tiama (Pseudocedrela sp.), 

 the Offram (Terminalia sp.), Tetrapleura Thonningii, &c., are 

 now a prominent feature of the vegetation and give it the 

 " mixed " appearance so characteristic of the Ashanti forests. 

 On the western slopes, drained by the Ofina and its feeder the 

 Subinsu, the proportion of evergreen trees to the deciduous-leafed 

 ones is slightly greater than prevails on the eastern aspects 

 drained by the Jym River. The trees are of more lofty growth 

 and both the large and small-capsuled cedars (Tiama-Tiama and 

 Penkiva, both species of Pseudocedrela), as well as the ordinary 

 Gold Coast mahogany (Khaya sp., the Dubini of the Fantis), and 

 the Odoum of the Ashantis, are common about here. The summits 

 of the higher hills are clothed with high forest containing the gum 

 copal tree, Cyanothyrsus ogea, Piptadenia africana, and a large 

 unnamed species of tree of the same genus that is very common 

 on these hills. One fine example of the rare Pebedum (Lovoa 

 Klaineana), a tree that yields an excellent timber and is closely 

 related to the cedars, was found, and good specimens of fruit 

 procured from it. The Ashanti name for this tree is Kwatanuro. 



The next forests to be examined were those in the vicinity 

 of Oboase and between it and the Adra River close to the village 

 of Hun. The first four miles of the path passed through land 

 leased to the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation. Timber has been 

 cut here (within a radius of two miles from Oboase) for the use 

 of the mines, both for fuel and construction purposes. The con- 

 sumption of fuel for all the mines belonging to that Company 

 amounts to an average of 3,000 cords a month. During the last 

 ten years some six square miles of forest have been depleted of 

 timber for this purpose. The trees spared when the fellings are 

 made are the Dahomah (Piptadenia africana), the oil-bean tree 

 (Pentaclethra macrophylla), and a species of Brachystegia; the 

 wood of all of these is difficult to split into billets. The total area 

 of the concession amounts to 100 square miles, so that at the 

 rate of clearing for fuel of six square miles in ten years the felling- 

 rotation will be sufficiently long to enable the coupes first made 

 to be reclothed with forest capable of being utilized again for 

 firewood, and also to furnish timber of a fair size (4' 6" to 6' in 

 girth) for other purposes. 



