CHAPTER II. 
The Forests. 
-r-HE forests of the Province of Mozambique are bounded only by the boundaries of the Province itself, that is to say the whole Province is one forest, except in so far as 
T foe and the axe have interfered with it. But its value as forest varies immensely, and tt wtli be necessary to cons.der the locaht.es separat y. 
M The District of I ourenzo Marques, including the circumscriptions of Maputo, Marracuene, Sabie, Manhica, and Magude, together w.th the upper portion of Gaza (Gtnja).- 
(0 T '\ D h : 1 , ih hole of hi. tea thorn-veld prevails, composed in great par. of Leguminous trees scattered far enough apart to allow an abundance of grass to grow 
undemeathVnd still close enough to maintain an open canopy throughout. The trees are usually of no great hetght, 30 to 50 feet be, ng the average except along the 
strums while in diameter ,0 .0 ,5 inches is the average. As the grass is burned every year, clean unbranched stems prevail, usually straight and without taper for ro 
,o ,5 feet, but seldom available for technical purposes in ao feet lengths, and usually with a rounded or more or less bushy crown. Many of these trees are of extreme 
hardness, and have black or red heartwood ; so far as a local demand exists for hardwood, it is easily met wtth good material of good kinds. A considerahle industry 
formerly existed along the main line of railway in sending poles of several species of Acacia, under the name Mkai, to Johannesburg, for use in the mines, where he 
strength and durability gave this a special value ; but the available material within easy distance of the railway has been practically worked out, and now that the 
Swaziland railway brings other areas within reach, the Government has prohibited the felling of this timber until such time as arrangements are completed for felling on 
license Of course here as elsewhere many trees of larger size occur, mixed among these hardwoods, but usually they are exceedingly soft, such as Ficus or Commiphora, 
and withstand the (ire through their sappy nature, but are of low technical value. The number of species of timber trees is very large the Acacias are more or less 
gregarious, but other kinds occur in very scattered fashion, and of several species I only saw single specimens. The largest trees are either loo soft or too hard to be 
worth working under present conditions, and no timber industry exists on the flats though valuable timber is there in abundance. In Lourenzo Marques only one 
wagon-maker is at work, mostly on repairs, and his demand for local timber is very limited. , . in. 
The species composing this thorn-veld are mostly different from those which occur in Natal and Zululand, the line of division being where the sandy flats 
begin, north of the Umfolozi. , , . . „. f . . . 
On the Swazi border where an altitude of 2000 feet is reached the tree-flora is very different. Trees are not abundant or large except in the kloofs, Acacia is 
less abundant, Combretum more abundant, and many trees of the Kaffrarian and Natal forests appear, such as Podocarpus, Toddaha, Olea, Ptero-celastrus, &c. 
Cussonia, which is absent below, is still scarce, and a Ficus takes its place as the last survivor on dry rock. Curiously enough, I found dense gregarious thickets, 
including very large trees, of a species (Weihea? subpeltata) which otherwise I only had from near Mozambique. On the top of the Lebombo range, at Estatuene, a 
Dutch wagon-maker, Mr. H. Du-pont, carries on an extensive business, doing most of the wagon work for Swaziland, all with local material, of which he held a consider- 
able stock, well seasoned, and I considered the information received from him, supported as it was by wagons, timber, furniture and building material in is 
possession, to be most valuable, and most of it was corroborated by Mr. Stem, of Swaziland, who happened to be living below the Lebombo when I was there. 
On the Transvaal border most of the kinds are common to Gaza and to the Eastern Transvaal. 
Near the coast a belt of litoral kinds on the dunes and sandy plains corresponds very closely with the flora of similar positions in Natal, while on the muddy 
shore the more or less cosmopolitan mangroves of similar latitudes abound. Trichilia and Anacardium are common on the sandy flats, as also are two species of 
Strychnos and one of Garcinia, together with the rubber-yielding Landolphia, Kirkii, and latex-yielding Ficus species. 
Several floras thus meet within the district, which consequently has a very large number of ligneous species, and a large number of kinds yielding valuable 
timber, but seldom dense forest or large quantity of one kind, except the Acacias. 
(2) The lower portion of Gaza and the district of Inhambane.— History has left its mark here. Closely inhabited by a most industrious agricultural population, who know the 
value of fresh forest areas for agricultural work, little of the original forest now remains, and present or past cultivation shows everywhere. Large as must be the area 
which has been cultivated and then abandoned in the ordinary course, there is probably a larger area which relapsed about twelve years ago during and after Gungun- 
hama’s raid. Fortunately the bush reasserts itself if given an opportunity, and that abandoned during the raid is now a thriving young dense forest, 12 to 20 feet high 
and with stems six to nine inches diameter. Most of the area under consideration may be described as a Tzontzo forest (Brachystegia), this tree being the predominant 
