58 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



Mansu-N'Kwanta, the country is undulating and broken only 

 occasionally by well-marked ridges. The northern spurs of the 

 main range extend a long way into the plains and broaden out 

 into small plateaux which are, I should think, about 1,000 ft. 

 above the sea and some 600 ft. below the crest of the water-part- 

 ing. The village of Amanchia is situated on one of the flat spurs. 

 The climate here is dry and bracing. With the exception of the 

 main range, which is covered with the densest of evergreen forest, 

 rmii:iining a fair sprinkling of mahoganies, cedars, odoum and 

 baku, the bulk of the vegetation consists of the mixed deciduous 

 type, and it gradually gets drier and drier northwards as one 

 approaches the Kuniasi-Bibiani road. The streams draining this 

 northern portion were quite dry at the time of our visit, and water 

 \\as difficult to find even after digging. As a general rule the 

 forest has been destroyed within a radius of a mile or so of the 

 more important villages for farming purposes. 



On the main range itself (the N'Kwanta Bepo) clearings have, 

 I am sorry to say, been made right up to the crest of the ridge by 

 the inhabitants of Adu-Kuma. This should be stopped, as some 

 of the most important feeders of the Offin river rise in those hills, 

 and the country already shows signs of drying up. There is 

 ample suitable land at the foot of the hills available for cultiva- 

 tion. The hills are selected in preference on account of the richer 

 soil that underlies the moist evergreen forests clothing them. It 

 is just this deep layer of humus in conjunction with the roots of 

 the plants growing in it that serves as the regulator of the water- 

 supply, and is destroyed by farming. 



The forests north of the main range belong, as mentioned above, 

 to the mixed deciduous type in which trees such as the Waw-waiv 

 (Triplochiton Johnsonii) ; the Off rain (Terminalia sp.) ; the Emril 

 (Terminalia sp.) ; the Dahomah (Piptadenia africana}; the 

 Owama (Ricinodendron africanus), Albizzia fastigiata, Albizzia 

 Brownei, the Odoum, (Chlorophora excelsa), the Tiama-Tiama 

 (f'teudocedrela sp.), the Punkwa (Pseudocedrela cylindrica), the 

 Snmanta (Xylia Evansii), Sterculia cordifolia, S. Barteri, 

 S. tomentosa, and a large species of mahogany (Khaya 

 unthotheca} with a light-coloured bark and wood, form 

 the dominant species. The ordinary Gold Coast mahogany 

 (another new species of Khaya} is also found about here in small 

 numbers. A species of Pterocarpus of lofty growth was seen in 

 these forests for the first time. 



Between Tokorase and Mansu N'Kwanta the forests have been 

 much destroyed for farms, but belts are left intact here and there. 

 They consist of irregular high forest, very rich in Funtumia 

 eliixlicti, and contain a few cedars (Pseudocedrela sp.) and the 

 ordinary Gold Coast mahogany (Khaya sp.). 



Other species met with were Piptadenia africana (very com- 

 mon), the Waw-waw (Triplochiton Johnsonii), common, the 

 Odoum (Chlorophora excelsa), common, and the two shingle- wood 

 trees, the Emril and the Off ram, both of them species of 

 Terminalia. 



