GOLD COAST REPORT ON FORESTS. 67 



For a few miles to the north of Puliamo (Jopakrom) the 

 country is still drained by the ]Ja River, the sources of which are 

 situated on a prominent range of hills situated to the north-west 

 of that village : the path to Asare skirts the eastern slopes and 

 spurs of this range, and passes through for about six miles a 

 large belt of tropical evergreen forest the last important one 

 that we saw till we turned southwards from Kintampo and entered 

 the forest region again some four marches from Kumasi. In this 

 evergreen belt, which was confined to some very moist, well- 

 watered alluvial soil along the valleys of the eastern slopes and 

 foot of the hills, a great number of plants that we had not seen of 

 late reappeared. The most conspicuous were Piptadenia 

 (ifrii-ann, Antiaris toj-icdi-iu var. nfricana, the Tiama-Tiama 

 (Pseudocedrela species), I'urkid biglobosa, the Raphia palms, and 

 a species of Cal/nnn*, Alston/a congensis, Myrianthus arboreits; 

 species of Antlmcleixta and Tetrapleura Thonningii were also 

 seen. 



Still further to the north this evergreen forest is replaced by the 

 more open mixed, deciduous ones, amongst which patches of grass 

 are frequent and forest fires had already made their appearance. 

 This type of forest gradually gave way in its turn to the open 

 savannah forests (park-like country) of the Hinterland, which 

 from here northwards is the prevailing type. Shortly after 

 leaving the evergreen forest belt we passed over to the drainage 

 area of the Volta Eiver, the most important river of the Colony 

 and Protectorate, and one which, strange to say, drains for prac- 

 tically the whole of its course the open park-like country charac- 

 teristic of the Hinterland. Even near its mouth I understand the 

 country is devoid of any extensive belts of evergreen tropical 

 forest. 



The Forests of the Volta River Drainage. 

 North-Western Aslianti. 



The typical open savannah forests begin to form the dominant 

 feature of the country in the neighbourhood of the small village 

 of Asare, which is situated on the western Ashanti plateau. This 

 plateau extends in the form of undulating land to within a few 

 miles of the actual channel of the Volta Eiver, on approaching 

 which a pretty considerable drop occurs. 



The rolling, open country does not, I think, anywhere much 

 exceed an elevation of a thousand feet above the level of the sea, 

 but it is intersected in a north to south direction by two prominent 

 ranges of hills which stand out well from the surrounding plains, 

 and must, on their higher peaks at all events, attain an altitude of 

 something like two thousand feet above sea-level. They are 

 mainly composed of schistose and granitoid rocks that have a 

 shattered appearance and are lying about, piled one on top of the 

 other in great confusion. 



The two ranges are more or less parallel in direction, the one to 

 the west follows closely the line of the French boundary and even- 

 tually becomes the range known as the Banda hills, whilst the 

 other, situated some twenty to thirty miles further east, has its 



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