GOLD COAST REPORT ON FORESTS. 93 



keep it in the best possible condition for agriculture should the 

 occasion ever arise to give the land over for that purpose. 



In this connection I may remark that some of the most valuable 



/ 



forests of India and Burma belong to similar open, deciduous 

 types. 



The type exists over an extensive tract of country in the hinter- 

 land and, as such, the richest portions are well deserving of 

 protection and systematic management. In the vicinity of 

 Kintampo and N'koranza there are some very fine examples of 

 these forests that are well stocked with the most valuable species 

 of timber trees to be found in the country. They are, I am sorry 

 to say, being rapidly destroyed, near Kintampo especially, for 

 farming purposes. 



Other localities where good forests of this kind exist are along 

 the foot of the range of hills to the west of the villages of Braha 

 and Oboase in North- Western Ashanti, and between Bian ami 

 Jugbe in the Northern Territories. 



I very much regret that for want 01 time I was unable to make 

 an extended trip to the Northern Territories, where the climate 

 is such as to make forest conservancy a matter of the greatest 

 importance. The small tract of country visited by me on my 

 way to the main Bola-Kintampo road enabled me to form some 

 idea of the forest vegetation found just north of Ashanti. What 

 I saw of it was encouraging, but I believe that the vegetation 

 further north, beyond the ninth parallel, is rather meagre. 



The localities visited on the Afram Plains lay in the direction 

 of the Abetifi-Atabobo road as far north as Suminsu and Bundasu 

 on the Sumin and Bunda Eivers. The forests lying to the right 

 and left of the path were in several places examined for some 

 miles on either side and a short excursion was made in a hitherto 

 unexplored tract of country situated to the north-east of Bundasu 

 in the direction of Krachi. The descent of the Kwahu hills from 

 Abetifi to the plain is much less abrupt than it is either to the 

 west or south of that town. In fact, the road taken by us has 

 the best gradient of any leading on to the plateau. The slopes 

 of the hills are covered with farms of koko yams, cocoa, bananas, 

 and corn ; belts of forest, however, have been left intact here and 

 there and they contain numbers of a species of mahogany with 

 large leaves, probably Khaya grcnidis. They attain a large size, 

 and young plants of different ages are fairly plentiful, but they 

 are of crooked growth. The vegetation in general is evergreen 

 and similar in character to that met with between Obo and Abetifi 

 with one important exception; on the middle slopes of the hills 

 occurs a wide belt, which has not been destroyed for farming 

 purposes, of a " pure forest " (i.e., a forest consisting practically 

 of only one species) of an evergreen tree that is either a species 

 of Cynometra or a Brachystegia; with the exception of the man- 

 grove forests on the coast, this is the most extensive example 

 that I have met of a type of forest that is extremely rare in 

 tropical West Africa, but which, on the other hand, is the 

 dominant type in Northern Europe and Asia. The leaf canopy 

 of this forest was complete, and practically the only plants 



