96 VI. LUMBERMEN AND RAFTSMEN 
for work. In the virgin forest the trees grow in the 
most capricious fashion, and it pays to fell them only 
where there is near the water’s edge a considerable 
number of the kind of trees required. These places are 
generally some distance within the forest, but when 
the river is high, are usually connected with the latter 
by some narrow watercourse, or by a pond, which at 
such times becomes a lake. The natives know well 
enough where these places are, but they keep the 
knowledge to themselves, and make a point of mislead- 
ing any white man who comes into their neighbourhood 
to look for them. One European told me that the 
natives of a certain village kept taking from him for 
two months liberal presents of brandy, tobacco, and 
cloth while they went out with him every day on the 
search for such a place, but not a single one was 
discovered which seemed to promise profitable exploita- 
tion. At last, from a conversation which he happened 
to overhear, he learnt that they purposely took him 
past all the favourable spots, and then their friendly 
relations came to a sudden end. Of the timber 
that stands near enough to the river to be easily 
transported, nearly the whole has already been felled. 
About half the forest area has been put, through 
concessions, into the hands of big European companies. 
The rest is free, and any one, white or black, can fell 
timber there as he pleases. But even in the woodlands 
covered by the concessions the companies often allow 
the natives to fell trees as freely as they can in the other 
parts, on the one condition that they sell the timber 
to the company itself, and not to other dealers. 
The important thing, after all, is not to own woods, 
but to have timber for sale, and the timber which the 
