Extract of MINUTE T the Governor of Lagos on the Bass fibre of the 
amboo palm (Raphia vinifera). 
In a letter received by me, shortly after my arrival in TAA in 
February last, from a well-known Manchester firm, a sample of a fibre 
known as * African Bass” was fo orwarded, with the following remarks: 
“Tf this ean be found and shipped in quantity I could sell larg 
quantities. It should be kept straight, tied up first in small bundles, 
. thickness of a man’ š 
a hundredweight each. It must be kept straight, whatever the length, 
as the bends spol the fibre 25 makes its ones to Tea 
** Please note hs brown fully meis: ilr is д to the light 
red colour; present value 30/. to 32/. p 
In the * African Bass” of which ine ain was sent to me I w 
colony, used, I may say, by every fisherman in the manufacture of his 
lines, and prepared from one of the most plentiful of the palm trees of 
the colony, the Raphia vinifera, or “ Bamboo” palm 
The “ African Bass ” is in appearance a stiff and wiry fibre, varying 
in colour from dark brown to light red, dependent for its shades on 
duration of soaking. It is most readily obtained in lengths of from 
3 feet to 4 feet, beyond which length it is inconvenient to pack and 
— ~ aeey without injury to the tree. In diameter it varies 
from о y of an inch, the latter of which may be accepted as the 
limit à ец to be admitted i in a commercial sample for the European 
t is used, I believe, mainly in the manufactnre of hard 
brushes for various domestic and manufacturing purposes. The demand 
appears to be very large, and the price, as shown above, is exceedingly 
_ satisfacto 
The source of its supply in this colony alone may be said to be prac- 
tonia айаны as will readily be acknowledged when its origin is 
explai 
The « Bamboo” palm, or Raphia garni is perhaps the commonest 
tree in the swamps and low lands whic e the waterways of the 
colony. Dense thickets of these palms, ен эне only by the palm wine 
gatherer or the bamboo cutter, push their way into the lagoons, and 
extend over the flood grounds, and even to a distance of from 15 to 20 
miles up the river valleys into the interior. e area occupied by these 
Пара forests it would be impossible to calculate, but it may be 
accepted without doubt that they extend throughout the length of Me 
colony, and to a distance of at least 15 miles from the sea coast, an 
that over this area of about 5,000 square miles they form a bea к 
proportion of the GR a AEn only in numbers to the Oil palm 
with the extent of the acreage which must be overrun 5 this freni 
pa alm 
Everybody i in the colony is aware of the manifold uses of the Raphia 
palm; how from its leaves hats, cloth, and cordage are made, from its 
leaf-stems rafters, fences, and walls, and from its crown of young 
unopened leaves palm wine of excellent quality. Of one part only the 
se seems not generally known, and it would appear that this particular 
О 65221. 875.—1/91. Wt. . A2 
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