152 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
of the Niger Delta is brought. Degema, Bugama, Bakana, Okrika 
and Port Harcourt are inland ports all reached from Bonny, situated 
at the mouth of the river of the same name. Opobo, on the Imo, is 
yet another inland port with a 14-foot bar at the river mouth. Eket 
is the small port for the Kwaiebo River, whence small steamers run to 
Calabar. Oron, on the western side of the estuary, is also a port worthy 
of mention. Though Calabar is some 15 miles above the junction of 
the Akwayefe, Kwa and Cross Rivers, it is the chief port of Eastern 
Nigeria. It is situated on the side of a hill some 200 feet high on the 
bank of the Calabar River, which is half a mile wide at this point. 
Turning now to the next type of forest met with after leaving the 
mangrove zone, the thick, heavy, evergreen rain forest is seen. On 
the western side in the province of Abeokuta it has very largely been 
destroyed, only comparatively small isolated areas remaining. In the 
Ondo province, however, some of the most extensive and heaviest timber 
areas of this type are found. A good network of rivers, such as the 
Ogun, Ona, Oshun, Oni, Shasha and Owenna, when flooded, form 
the outlets for timber worked in these localities. In the northern 
part of the Warri province and the southern part of the Benin province 
large representative areas of the evergreen type are found, though there 
they tend to mingle with the tall, mixed deciduous forests. To a 
small extent in the Owerri, but to the largest extent in the Calabar 
province, the rain forests find their finest development, culminating 
in the Oban Hills on the eastern side of the latter provinces. The 
rainfall there is 175 inches per annum. 
The Sasswood is one of the first trees to appear when the mangrove 
swamp gives way to the evergreen forest. Other large trees are the 
mahoganies, found chiefly on the old banks; red ironwood, with its 
brilliant red fresh leaves in the late autumn. In fact, these leaves 
are often taken for flowers, owing to their very bright colour. They 
gradually, however, assume a dark green colour as the season advances. 
An unidentified species of gum-copal which grows to colossal dimensions 
is found scattered rather diffusely and curiously in these areas. Differ- 
ent kinds of ebony, with wood varying from brown to green black, are 
seen throughout the zone, though, as with other trees, a different 
species is found in the different provinces; on the whole, the blackest 
wood is found where the rainfall is heaviest. 
The mixed deciduous zone, which consists both of deciduous and 
evergreen trees, mingles and gradually develops at the northern edge 
of the evergreen rain forest ; in many cases the one goes over into the 
other almost imperceptibly, and it is only perhaps after half a day’s 
march that one realizes that one has left the evergreen type behind 
and reached the forests where half the trees lose their leaves every 
year. A very large development of these forests is found in the Abeo- 
kuta, Oyo, Jebu-ode and Ondo provinces. Very heavy inroads have 
