FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 247 



machinery and of the encouragement that it should 

 have received. Corrugated iron has taken its place, 

 which is not, however, appreciated by the natives, 

 as can be well undeirstood. 



The more general extension of this industry 

 should be promoted, and, with the available and 

 local wants, the prospect of a timber industry of 

 no small dimensions, even of a local nature, may be 

 indulged in and viewed as a bright one. Shingles as 

 regards the Gambia and Sierra Leone are imported ; 

 why ? let wood-workers ask themselves. Let the 

 large import of staves for casks be also considered 

 where such wood as "' odoom " (" oroko ") is available. 

 But before we can hope to build what may prove 

 to be chateaux en Espagne, the value and worth of the 

 woods of West Africa must be determined, which in 

 view of the circumstances of the Colonies can be only 

 gradually known, and hope in the meantime can but be 

 entertained that the information will be of avail when 

 it has been obtained, and that more than statistics 

 will be forthcoming later, and that we shall not be 

 without the wares the worth of which to the com- 

 mercial world we had been collecting information 

 with a view to advertise. Here I would invite the 

 contribution, on the part of those who are sufficiently 

 interested and so placed as to admit thereof, especially 

 sawyers and carpenters, of specimen slabs of the 

 timber of such trees as are felled from time to 

 time ; and I would lay stress on scented woods. 



