XVI 
FORESTS 
1 S7 
Thunbergii ), Cedar ( Juniperus procera), and I bean 
Camphor (Ocotea usambarensis). Of the two latter, 
cedar is the commonest in the drier portions of the 
forest, while camphor is confined to those that are 
more damp. Next to these four, comes olive ( Olea 
chry sophy lid). Of the three great forests, the 
Aberdare forest is considerably the least valu¬ 
able, and has also suffered by far the most from 
grass fires and native destruction. Mr. D. E. 
Hutchins, late forest officer, computes in his most 
excellent blue book that in this forest alone the 
Kikuyu have within recent years destroyed no fewer 
than 350 square miles of valuable timber. If a con¬ 
siderable portion of the sums expended in preventing 
a comparatively few acres from being utilised by 
settlers had been used to conserve our timber from 
destruction by natives, we should have been better 
off to the extent of millions of pounds. 
The total Aberdare forests consist of:— 
Eastern Aberdare 
Western Aberdare 
fSouthern forest = 96,000 acres 
Bamboo forestwith 
interspersed Yel¬ 
low-wood = 124,800 acres 
^Northern forest = 228,480 acres 
= 28,160 acres 
Of this the Bamboo forest has no commercial value, 
and of the rest the finest portion is what is known as 
the Thomson forest, which represents an area of about 
100 square miles of good timber. A considerable 
proportion of the forest on Western Kenia has been 
granted to the East African Syndicate. 
The Mau Forests , though in no solid continuous 
block, like the Kenia forest, comprise the largest area 
of timber in the Protectorate. Taken as a whole, it is 
