GOLD COAST REPORT ON FORESTS. fi3 



men even during our short stay in the town, which is a large and 

 influential centre, and, I should imagine, capable of supplying 

 abundant food. However, we had the consolation of passing 

 through a very similar (so we were informed) tract of uninhabited 

 country, that was clothed with what is practically virgin forest, 

 during our journey to Mohang. These forests are described 

 below. 



The Forests of the upper portion of the Bia River Drainage. 



From the town of Mim to within a few miles of Pamo the 

 country is covered with an almost continuous stretch of high 

 forest that appears to be more or less virgin in character. In the 

 neighbourhood of Kenyase Mohang a few clearings and patches 

 of secondary growth are to be met with ; otherwise the forests 

 have been left intact, and extend with but few interruptions 

 right up to the zone of country forming the borderland between 

 the areas occupied by the mixed deciduous forests and the open 

 Savannah forests met with in north-western and northern 

 Ashanti. 



The country is hilly in character with a few well-pronounced 

 ranges forming the divide between the basins of the Tano and 

 Bia Rivers. They do not, however, reach an altitude of more 

 than a few hundred feet above the main valleys, and have no very 

 marked influence on the vegetation with which they are covered. 



The soil is more loose in character and covered with a deeper 

 layer of humus than that noticed during the last few days 

 between Bibiani and Mim, and the rocks are of much older type, 

 consisting mostly of schists and granites. Between Mim and 

 Kenyase Mohang several important feeders of the Bia have to be 

 crossed. They are all of them perennial streams containing 

 much water. The neighbourhood of that river is very swampy, 

 and the crossing difficult in consequence. From the opposite 

 bank the country appears to rise very gradually up to the low 

 plateaux of the open country. Water is as scarce on this side 

 of the basin of the Bia as it is plentiful on the left bank drainage. 



The well-watered condition of the Bia and Tano River basins 

 about here appears to be mainly due to the fact that those two 

 rivers rise on the south-western slopes of the high ground form- 

 ing the edge of the Hinterland plateau, where, on account of the 

 elevation of the land and the aspect of the slopes (facing the 

 direction of the south-west monsoon), the annual precipitations 

 must be heavy. No doubt the presence of very extensive forests 

 in that direction also accounts in part for the abundant water 

 supply. 



The right bank drainage area, on the other hand, of the Bia 

 River is not only very much smaller in extent, but it is fed from 

 tjie eastern (protected aspect) slopes of the important and high 

 range of hills that run close to, and almost parallel with, the 

 eastern boundary of the Ivory Coast for a very long distance. 

 This backbone, as it were, of the country runs practically north 

 and south, and its western slopes intercept the larger portion 

 of the monsoon rainfall. 



