ECONOMIC RESOURCES 487 of the Benu6 and the Niger. In the western part of Nupe, between the Kaduna and the Niger, there are extensive plantations of the Kola acuminata esteemed through the whole of North Africa : these might become the basis of an important export trade. Shea butter trees abound in most parts of the Protectorate, and oil palms in the river valleys. The larger rivers of the Protectorate possess the usual characteristic of African rivers, and in time of flood overflow their normal borders, leaving every year a deposit of rich alluvial mud, which renders the soil of the valleys not only extremely rich, but practically inexhaustible. Heavy crops of rice, tobacco, cotton, &c., are cultivated as in Egypt on the land thus left exposed. This fertility is particularly observable in the valleys of the rivers which drain the highlands of Nassarawa and Bautchi to the Niger and the Benue.

In the Gongola Valley the soil is described as " ideal black cotton soil," and existing native cotton crops are specially good. Fine fields of dhourra, gero, tobacco, &c., spread round all the villages ; two crops of dhourra and tobacco being obtained in the year. On the exposed banks of the Lower Benue after flood, rice enough could, it is believed, be grown to supply the whole Protectorate, and to leave a considerable surplus for export.

All these areas are inhabited by naturally industrious agricultural tribes, who have for centuries been the prey of slave-raiders. It is evident that a very large population has at one time existed here, and now that slaveraiding has been stopped, the country should once more provide all the labour that can be required for its extensive development. Farther east, the territories of Southern Bornu carry forests of gum-bearing acacias, breaking towards the north into mahogany tamarinds and dum palms.

In the open northern portions of the Protectorate the products are more purely agricultural. They are under present conditions grown mainly — though not