Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1917 



927 





British Foresters in the Cameroons 



The following letter has been re- 

 ceived from Mr. A. H. Unwin who 

 is in the British Forestry Service in 

 Nigeria, Africa. Mr. Unwin was for- 

 merly in the Dominion Forestry Ser- 

 vice, and is a member of the Can- 

 adian Society of Forest Engineers. 

 The letter is as follows: "In Nigeria 

 I am in charge of the Working Plans 

 Division,' but since I came back this 

 time I have been transferred to the 

 British Sphere of the Cameroons (late 

 German Colony) to report on the 

 plantations and forests as well as the 

 Agricultural resources. Needless to 

 say the Southern Forests, such as I 

 have seen of them, are grand with 

 plenty of Mahogany of various kinds, 

 besides Ebony, rubber and bullet 

 wood, also ironwood. Most of the 

 land is really covered with forest, 

 except for the small clearings of the 

 natives here and there. The Ger- 

 mans had not developed the timber 

 industry in this part very much; in 

 fact, compared to Nigeria, they had 

 been very slow in taking up Forestry 

 and only had six men in all, compared 

 to Nigeria's sixteen at th^^ same date. 

 They had, however, done a certain 

 amount of planting at the District 

 Stations, chiefly with Teak, rubber 

 Cocoa, Indian blackwood, as well as 

 what they called German Steamer. 

 I cannot quite make out what they 

 meant by this. They had planned 

 to plant in the drier regions away from 

 the Coast, but little had been done 

 before the war. Now we will hope 

 they will not be allowed to return. 

 Several large rivers for floating logs 

 are found both North and South, 

 notably the Cross River and the 

 Mungo, as well as four other rather 

 smaller ones, the Akwayefe, Ndian, 

 Moko and Meme. On thie whole too 

 it is quite a mountainous country, the 

 Cameroon itself being 13,000 feet 

 high, and then there are several rang- 

 es, such as the Rumpi, 4000 odd, on 

 which they are good stands of tim- 

 ber. The chief difficulty in dealing 



with tracts is that there are so many 

 different species on a given unit of 

 area that it is almost impossible to 

 make it pay with any great length of 

 haul to a waterway. I have found 

 as many as 73 species of trees in a 

 valuation survey two chains wide and 

 three miles long, and that is not a 

 large number. The known species 

 of timber trees regardless of shrub 

 trees in this part is about 300, quite 

 apart from the unnamed trees. It 

 is like a vast arboricultural collection, 

 all mixed up without labels, and over- 

 grown with creepers and undergrowth 

 into the bargain." 



The Bird Treaty. 



All bird lovers will rejoice to know 

 that a treaty has been entered into 

 between the United States and Great 

 Britain to protect migratory birds in 

 this country and Canada. By three 

 great highways the birds and the 

 waterfowl pass back and forth be- 

 tween the two countries. One is 

 along our Eastern Atlantic coast, an- 

 other is by way of the land included 

 in the Mississippi valley, the other 

 is the Pacific slope west of the Rocky 

 Mountains. There is also a north- 

 ern, or breeding zone, and a southern, 

 or wintering zone. While in passage, 

 and while in the north or in the south 

 our migratory insectivorous birds will 

 have the protection of both govern- 

 ments, the game birds also will be 

 protected under laws and regulations 

 agreed upon. 



The last two or three years have 

 been wonderful years for the birds 

 in the way of the legal protection 

 obtained for them. On the one hand 

 economy, claiming that toward a 

 billion dollars a year is lost to the 

 farmers because of insect pests, which 

 the birds, if not destroyed, might 

 largely have cared for, and on the 

 other hand the sportsman, seeking 

 protection for game birds that he may 

 still have hish unting season, have 



