156 
A COLONY IN THE MAKING 
CHAP. 
speculator should make a profit, and also, no doubt, by 
the feeling that every year the forests get an enhanced 
value. One hears a lot about the iniquity of the holding 
up of such possessions on the part of private individuals, 
and a tax on unearned increment has very rightly been 
invented in England to cope with the abuse. There 
must surely come a period when even on the part of 
Government this same clinging to possessions which 
cry for development ceases to be commendable. 
The main extra-tropical forests in the Highlands 
consist of :— 
The Mau Forests = 
The Aberdare Forests = 
The Kenia Forest = 
Forests near Nairobi = 
Mount Elgon Forests = 
Forests on the 
Anglo-German border = 
Unexplored and small Forests 200 
768,379 acres. 
477*440 „ 
400,000 ,, 
61,440 ,, 
3 2 >°°o „ 
32,000 „ 
or 300 square miles. 
It is the three greater forests which form the most 
valuable portion of our timber ; this is so not only 
because of their superior size, but because, being on a 
higher zone, they contain, as a whole, a more valuable 
class of tree. There is one exception to this state¬ 
ment ; the I bean Sandal (M’hugu) which grows freely 
in the forest round Nairobi, being one of the most 
valuable trees in the Protectorate. Not only for sandal 
work, but for sleepers, fencing posts, and firewood, it is 
not to be surpassed. It does not grow freely on the 
higher zone. The forests of the upper zone contain, 
not only all the largest trees, but practically all the 
conifers. The four chief timbers are two forms of 
Yellow-wood (Podocarpus gracilior and Podocarpus 
