390 
Rubber  in  Sierra  Leone. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I       Aug..  1893. 
from  three  to  ten  or  twelve  years  old.  The  natives  seem  in  most 
districts  usually  to  make  a  fresh  clearing  after  the  bush  has  attained 
this  age,  and  consequently  these  kinds  of  rubber  do  not  get  a  chance 
of  growing,  as  they  all,  so  far  as  I  have  seen  personally,  prefer  old 
forest  where  the  trees  are  at  least  twenty  years  old,  and  the  soil 
consists  of  a  rich,  moist  humus,  or  is,  at  any  rate,  a  mixture  of  leaf 
mould  and  other  soils.  On  the  other  hand,  on  the  plateaux  of  iron 
pan  and  gneiss  from  1,000  feet  upwards  to  3,000  feet,  the  trees, 
though  numerous  and  in  large  part  of  considerable  age,  are  too 
isolated,  and  the  soil  is  too  dry  and  hard  for  these  rubbers.  In  fact, 
the  amount  of  rubber  available  from  the  rubber  vines  depends  on 
the  amount  of  original  forest,  and  this  is  not  large  in  the  district  we 
traversed. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  enormous  areas  from  which  rubber 
could  be  obtained,  provided  the  district  was  freed  from  the  never 
ceasing  native  wars  and  slave-raiding  expeditions.  Thus  the  country 
about  Laya  and  Kofiu  Mountain,  as  well  as  the  Benna  country  along 
the  edge  of  which  we  passed,  is  full  of  forests  and  contains  much 
rubber  which  would,  if  the  roads  to  Kambia  were  safe,  pass  down 
the  Scarcies  River.  The  Fula  country,  lying  back  from  the  north- 
west corner  of  the  English  s^nereof  influence,  is  also  said  to  be  full 
of  rubber,  which  would  most  probably  come  down  the  same  way. 
Along  the  tenth  degree  of  north  latitude  the  country  is  in  many 
places  broken  and  mountainous,  and  the  deeper  and  narrower  val- 
leys are  full  of  dense  forest,  from  which  the  rubber  could  be  pro- 
fitably withdrawn.  There  is  also  in  all  probability  an  enormous 
supply  in  the  almost  uninhabited  Koronko  district,  and  in  the 
magnificent  woody  valleys  about  Bafodeya  and  other  parts  of  the 
Limba  country,  on  the  Upper  Rokelle  and  especially  in  the  back 
country  of  Sherboro.  I  should  think  it  probable  that  with  roads 
made  absolutely  safe,  the  supply  of  rubber  from  the  colony  might 
be  doubled,  or  even  quadrupled  in  amount,  but  with  the  develop- 
ment of  lawlessness,  and  the  constant  native  wars  everywhere,  but 
little  is  to  be  expected  after  the  next  few  years,  when  the  sources 
readily  reached  from  the  coast  have  been  drained  of  their  supplies. 
It  must  also  be  remembered  that  the  supply  is  one  which  is  likely 
to  be  exhausted  with  increase  of  population  and  ought  not  to  be 
reckoned  upon  for  more  than  a  few  years,  supposing  the  country 
were  rendered  safe. 
