West African forest is steadily, and as time goes on, more rapidly, 

 diminishing. There seems no doubt that the root cause of this is 

 entirely due to the natives' system of shifting cultivation, by wliich 

 forest land is cleared, cultivated, and after a few years abandoned, 

 when further clearings are made. Forest again appears on the 

 abandoned land, but it is an impoverished woodland, comprising but 

 a few score species as opposed to the several hundred that are found 

 in the virgin forest. With the cessation of internecine warfare, and 

 the long period of peace that has now existed in West Africa, the 

 population has turned its energies increasingly to agricultural pursuits, 

 and consequently to meet these needs the destruction of forest has 

 proceeded and is proceeding at an ever-increasing rate. 



In this connection a summary of the views of the encroachment of 

 the Sahara on the Sudan, with the first stage of which problem the 

 Forest Authorities of the Gold Coast are confronted, is contained in 

 Mr. Bovill's articles in the Journal of the African Society, Volume XX., 

 Nos. LXXIX and LXXX. The situation is so well considered 

 that it is felt necessary to quote the following somewhat extensive 

 extracts. 



" The evidence of increasing aridity in the Sudan, especially in 

 Senegal and Nigeria, would seem to be sufficiently convincing. In 

 an aggregate of years, rivers are found to be less subject to flood, lakes 

 dry up, wells shrink and fail, farmers complain of decreasing yields, 

 and finally there is a gradual movement of the people from the north 

 southward. It is the conviction of those who are in intimate contact 

 with the natives that this dislocation of the population is entirely due 

 to the encroachment of the Sahara. 



" The field geologist in so vast and imperfectly known a country 

 as the northern half of Africa is required to range over great areas ; 

 he seldom has an opportunity of becoming intimately acquainted with 

 any single district, and the scarcely perceptible processes of nature 

 such as the gradual shrinkage of wells, lakes, and even rivers, are not 

 unlikely to escape his notice ; nor is he called upon to solve the problems 

 arising out of the consequent dislocation of the population. Moreover, 

 in his training, and in the exercise of his profession, mere decades, and 

 perhaps centuries, are periods of time of no great significance. The 

 local official, on the other hand, is usually required to serve for long 

 periods in very limited areas, with which he becomes intimately 

 acquainted, and with the inhabitants of which he is in constant and 

 intimate contact. Under his eye the shght processes of nature, 

 especially when connected with the vital question of water supply, 

 are far less hkely to escape observation. It is chiefly from this 

 source that springs the ever-growing mass of evidence of increasing 

 aridity. 



