FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



including islands adjacent, are concerned, the Gambia 

 and St. Helena seem alone to have at all responded 

 to the invitation to supply information, which has been 

 condensed into the following analysis* : — 



"The timber products of Gambia are — Mahogany, 

 used for ship-building ; rosewood, used for boat and 

 canoe building ; ' runs,' the male species of which is 

 used for bridge and house building ; black stick, used 

 for boat-building ; mangrove, used for props, posts, 

 and small vessels ; black mangrove, used in native 

 houses ; monkey bread, the bark of which is used for 

 making ropes ; cotton tree, used for canoes, and for the 

 manufacture of domestic utensils ; and the india- 

 rubber tree." 



" The forests are owned by the Government. They 

 are said to be diminishing owing to the operations 

 of woodcutters. At the date when these statistics 

 were compiled the acting Administrator was contem- 

 plating the framing of an Ordinance to restrain the 

 cutting of wood and the imposition of a licence duty. 

 The export trade in timber ceased with the intro- 

 duction of iron shipbuilding, but the Board of Trade 

 Returns show a rise in the values of caoutchouc ex- 

 ported from Gambia and Sierra Leone to the United 

 Kingdom from ;^i, 959 in 1872 tO;£'2S,276in 1876, and 

 the value of gum exports for the latter year as 

 ;^ 1 8,363." 



Parturhmt monies, nascetur ridiculus mus. 

 * Command Paper 2197 ,of 1878. 



