GOLD COAST REPORT ON FORESTS. 191 



Distribution. 



Only a general idea can be given of the distribution of these 

 various types of forest within the limits of the Gold Coast and 

 Ashanti. Accurate data for the preparation of a proper stock 

 map would take years to collect ; at present only rough approxi- 

 mations are possible. 



The rain or moist evergreen tropical forests are in their typical 

 form restricted on the coast line to the extreme south-west corner 

 of the 'Colony in the neighbourhood of Axini. From there they 

 extend northwards (with one marked break) along the valleys of 

 the Tano, Ankobra, and Bia Rivers, through Wassaw, upper 

 Denkira, and Sefwi, to just north of the (seventh parallel of north 

 latitude. They have a tendency to hug the western frontier dur- 

 ing the greater portion of their range, and are interrupted be- 

 tween Asankagwa and Wiawuso by a broad belt of vegetation that 

 possesses a drier strain and stretches across the country from the 

 Tano River to the railway between the station of Inibrahim and a 

 point a few miles south of Oboase. An extensive branch of the 

 rain forest stretches from Axini in a north-easterly direction to 

 Tarkwa, and the Pra River follows the valley of the latter a con- 

 siderable distance inland, more especially -along the upper course 

 of its principal feeders the A mini and Birrim Rivers, and finally 

 splits up into several detached belts occupying the deeper valleys 

 of the Bompata, Abetifi-Obo, Bogora, and Kyebi hill systems. 



The savannah forests, on the other hand, together with patches 

 of scrub forest, are well represented along the opposite end of the 

 coast line, viz., on the south-east sea-board, whence they 

 extend in a gradually decreasing (narrowing) belt as far west as 

 Sekondi. To the north of Accra they follow the plain and occupy 

 the country up to the foot of the hills, <and then sweeping round 

 to the north -still keeping away from the more pronounced hill 

 systems follow the valley of the Yolta River and gradually 

 broaden out till, at latitude 6 30' N. approximately, they rapidly 

 increase in area, and bending away to the north-west, occupy the 

 whole of the northern half of Ashanti (from east to west) right 

 up to the Volta River, its large feeder, the Black Yolta, and 

 practically the whole of the Northern Territories on the opposite 

 bank. They extend southwards as far as Puliamo 011 the west, and 

 the neighbourhood of <Chichewere in the centre {due north of 

 Kumasi), and Abetifi further eastwards. 



The whole of the country not occupied by either the rain forests 

 or the savannah forests is clothed with a rather green type of 

 monsoon or mixed deciduous forest. The latter is, however, in 

 the more hilly and well watered localities frequently interrupted 

 by narrow belts of evergreen (rain) forest. No very sharp lines 

 of demarcation exist between these types, and they usually merge 

 into each other very gradually. An abrupt transition, however, 

 exists just to the north of Abetifi, where one practically steps out 

 from the moist forests of the hills on to the savannah forests of 

 the Afram plains. 



As far as it can be ascertained from data available, the distri- 

 bution of tiieRe various types follows closely that of the climates 



