﻿170 JAS. J. SIMPSON — ENTOMOLOGICAL 



and fill up with each fall and rise of the tide. The reclamation of land is slowly 

 progressing and an extensive sea-wall is being built. When this is completed, 

 and the level of the whole island raised a few feet by means of sand pumped from 

 the sea, Forcados may then claim the title of a town. Sanitary work, so far as 

 such is possible in the present conditions, is very efficiently carried on by the 

 District Medical Officer, Dr. E. W. S. Smythe, but the total effect of keeping 

 down mosquito breeding in native compounds is almost negligible in view of the 

 enormous breeding-areas supplied by the omnipresent marshes. Nor is the 

 drainage of these possible in the present conditions, and, except in a few cases, 

 the employment of kerosene would be extremely expensive and almost useless. 



Tsetse are everywhere to be found, and the number of mosquitos, both species 

 and individuals, is enormous. These include Myzomyia funesta and Stegomyia 

 fasciata in large numbers. Malaria is rife, and the possibility of yellow fever 

 establishing itself in such a place is greatly to be dreaded. Recently a 

 quarantine hospital was built on one of the creeks which flows into the Forcados 

 River. 



The Government of Southern Nigeria is fully alive to the necessity of reducing 

 the amount of swamp on the island by means of a general elevation of the whole 

 area, and no time should be lost in effecting this most urgent sanitary improve- 

 ment. The risk to human life in the present state of affairs is the most cogent 

 reason for advocating immediate and unceasing reclamation. 



The following list of blood-sucking arthropods found in Forcados may 

 exemplify more definitely the exact state of affairs : — Glossina palpalis, G. cali- 

 ginea, Tabanus fasciatus, T. par, T. secedens, T. socialis, T. taeniola, T. ihora- 

 cinus, Banksinella luteolateralis, Ochlerotatus nigricephalus, Culex decens, 

 C. insignis, C. invidiosus, C. rima, C. tlialassius, Culiciomyia nebulosa, Myzomia 

 costalis, M. funesta, Myzorhynchus umbrosus, Stegomyia africana, S. fasciata, 

 Culicoides grahami, Ctenocephalns canis, and Rhipicephalas sanguineus. One 

 Muscid larva (probably Cordylobia) was taken from the breast of a European. 



There are no large towns in the district. The natives are chiefly Ijaws, and 

 live in small hamlets on the banks of the creeks ; their only industries are fishing 

 and canoe-making. 



Burutu is situated on the Forcados River a few miles above the town of 

 Forcados. It is the headquarters of the Niger Company, and the Northern 

 Nigerian Marine also have a station there. The mail-steamers ascend to this 

 point for cargo and tie up alongside the wharf. The land is raised above the 

 water-level, but is surrounded by mangrove swamp and dense bush, a large 

 part of which ought to be cleared and the area drained. This " beach " is also 

 a pestilential mosquito haunt, and most of the species obtained at Forcados were 

 also found here. Between these two places the bank of the river is densely 

 covered with mangrove (PI. IV, fig. 1), and launches passing to and fro are 

 invaded by swarms of Glossina and Tabanus. Nowhere in Southern Nigeria is 

 there such a pressing need for systematic sanitary work as at these two places. 



(3) River Niger. 



< The third group of districts in the Central Province comprises those through 

 which the River Niger flows, and in order to form a narrative continuous with 



