128 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



gum trade, although there presents itself prominently 

 the tree " Santang " (name in Mandingo and Volof 

 both for tree and gum). The natives use it for disin- 

 fecting purposes and medicinally. This tree abounds, 

 and is much resorted to by canoe-builders and other 

 woodworkers. It is being treated as I found the 

 " Ogea '* in the Colony of Lagos. The merciless axe 

 and fire attack it right and left, with the objects in 

 addition" to foregoing of securing potash for the 

 indigo-dyeing industry, or manure for the land. 

 Botanically the Santang is very like the " Ogea," and 

 will prove to be, I fancy, a Daniellia (.'') also. 



Then the Gambia mahogany, Khaya senegalensis, 

 yields a gum, a specimen of which I succeeded in 

 sending to the Forestry Exhibition of 1884. Next, 

 the banks of the Gambia are here and there studded 

 with acacias, which are ignored, and yield the gum 

 industry of Senegambia. 



Again, I satisfied myself, by securing specimens, 

 which were shewn also in the late Exhibition, that the 

 Acacia Verek {Acacia arabica or Acacia Senegal) — 

 known in trade as the Soudan gum, for which there is 

 at present a large demand — with other gum-yielding 

 Acacias, is to be found somewhat extensively flanking 

 to some considerable length and depth the many- 

 arms of the Gambia River. 



Why cannot such Acacias be similarly utilized in 

 that Colony through the medium of the Gambia River, 

 which permeates such a vast and rich extent of 



