The Black Republic — Liberia 



335 



try of savannas, grassy hills, 

 or park-land of grass, with 

 dense forests along the 

 stream valleys. 



When I visited the coast 

 Df Liberia in 1882 and 1885, 

 says Sir Harry Johnston, 

 the primeval forest grew 

 down to the sea along a 

 great proportion of the 

 coast; but when I visited 

 this country in the sum- 

 mer of 1904, where I had 

 noted forest growing as late 

 as 1888, much of this big- 

 tree woodland had been 

 swept away to make room 

 for plantations or even for 

 towns. In fact, with a few 

 exceptions, the big-tree and 

 rubber - producing forest 

 does not usually begin in 

 its most marked character- 

 istics until a journey of at 

 least 15 miles has been 

 made inland from the coast. 



I have estimated, from 

 the reports of the agents 

 Df the British companies 

 md from the accounts of Li- 

 berian, British, and French 

 explorers that out of the 

 45,000 square miles which 

 may be approximately as- 

 signed as the area of the 

 Liberian Republic at least 

 25,000 square miles consist 

 of dense, uncleared forest, 

 penetrated, it may be, by 

 narrow native paths, but as 

 often as not pierced by ele- 

 phant-made tracks. About 

 3,500 square miles repre- 

 sent the plantations, gar- 

 dens, towns, and settlements 

 of the Americo-Liberians 

 along the coast, and 2,000 

 or 3,000 square miles the 

 clearings made by the in- 

 digenous natives in the 

 dense forests. The remain- 

 der of the territory — about 



The Foreign Consuls at Monrovia 

 Two Native Kings, Liberia 



