CHAPTER III 
SIERRA LEONE 
I. THe Forests. 
Tue Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone cover an area of approxi- 
mately 34,000 square miles, or, to make it more comprehensible, it 
is almost the same size as Ireland. Probably in the earliest times 
the whole territory was covered with some kind of arborescent growth, 
varying from open savannah and deciduous forest to close, impene- 
trable evergreen rain forest. 
Now scarcely 1 per cent. of this forest remains, one of the most 
important tracts being the Sierra Leone or Peninsular Mountain Forest, 
situated on the mountain due east of Freetown. The whole of this 
‘region was once covered with forest, now reduced to an area of 
approximately 48 square miles, or 30,000 acres. All this tract down 
to the 500-foot control line has been reserved as a permanent forest, 
so that eventually the whole peninsular forest will have an area of 
75 square miles. Illustrations Nos. 2 and 4 show a general view of 
these forests. 
Other important mountain forests are those situated on the Kassewe 
Hills, Kagnari Mountains, Kambui Hills, Panguma Hills, Nimmini 
Mountains, Loma Mountains, Bunbola Hills, and Maramper Hills. 
In addition to these areas, timber trees are felled at Kangahan and 
Yonni, as well as in the peninsular mountains and Maramper Hills, 
especially for local use. 
Turning now to a consideration of the forests more in detail, one 
naturally first deals with the most accessible ones, i.e. of the penin- 
sular mountains. From the beautiful harbour of Freetown, Sierra 
Leone, one sees the edge of these forests between Leicester Peak and 
Sugar Loaf Mountains. From these two points it skirts the hill 
station, extending thence roughly parallel to the sea as far as Kent; 
the largest wooded slopes face the ocean, only a narrow strip of forest 
being found on the landward side of the mountains near Burehtown 
and John Obey. The forest extends practically from the water’s 
edge on the estuary of the Bureh River right up the mountains to an 
elevation of 2,000 feet, with a rainfall of upwards of 160 inches per 
year. Silvan vegetation is very luxuriant, the giant trees standing 
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