The village
stands outside the south-western angle, and the Fia rivulet runs through
the south-eastern corner. The surface is rolling ground, with a rise and a
depression trending from south-west to north-east. The whole extent,
except where 'bush' lingers, is an old plantation of bananas, manioc, and
ground-nuts. There is an ample supply of good hard timber, but red
pitch-pine or creosoted teak from England would last much longer. Amongst
the trees are especially noted the copal, the gamboge, rich in sticky
juice, the _brovi_, said to be the hardest wood, and the _dum_, or African
mahogany (_Oldfieldia africana_), well known in Ceylon as excellent
material for boat-building. There was an abundance of the Calabar-bean
(_Physostigma venenosum_), once used for an ordeal-poison, and now applied
by surgery in ophthalmic and other complaints. The 'tie-tie,' as
Anglo-Africans call the rope-like creepers, was also plentiful; it may
prove valuable for cordage, and possibly for paper-making. I was pleased
to see the ease with which the heaped-up jungle-growth is burnt at this
season and the facility of road-making. Half a dozen Kru-boys with their
matchets can open, at the rate of some miles a day, a path fit to carry a
'sulky;' and the ground wants only metalling with the stone which lines
every stream.
Pages:
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188