The Grass Land Region
“Leaving the Munchis’ country, the Commission came to the junction of the Amiri and Mahana Rivers—whose steep banks are lined with magnificent trees, from which hang long ribbon orchids over a series of deep clear pools full of large fish—in a region of open grass land. The road up the Amiri Valley passes through extensive yam fields and Olitti and Atcho villages, composed of roomy, massive houses in small stone-walled compounds, protected with loop-holed thorn palisades. Grass land is reached at a height of 4,000 feet, and the path after crossing five separate peaks of 2,000 feet reaches the main ridge about 5,000 feet above sea level. To the north and east, as far as the eye can see, stretches open grass land, with range upon range of blue mountains in the distance. Across the plain sweep parallel shining rivers, disappearing through gaps in the hills to the north. To the south and west, the great forest-clad plain extends to the Cross River, whose valley forty miles away is marked by a long bank of clouds. All around is high tableland, cut up into small plateaux by numerous ravines, down which countless streams tear headlong to the plains.”
Descending from the main plateau, which is covered with thick short grass and appears to be an ideal district for cattle raising, the Commission came to the first villages of the Anyangs, who are almost invariably at war with the grass land people. “Their villages are hidden away in the forest, and consist of long, low, rectangular mud houses with roofs of palm-leaves, on either side of a squalid street. The people are very poor, and live almost entirely on plantains, their farms being in small clearings, widely separated. Pigs are kept in large numbers in the villages. Further south, the people met with are Bokis, who extend to the Cross River.... The village boundaries, although in dense forest, are well known to the natives, who are extremely jealous of their rubber-collecting rights.”
The geological structure of the boundary zone, taken as a whole, is said to present few features of interest. Traces of tin were found in some of the rivers flowing north from the watershed of the Cross River and Benue system, and nearly all the rivers crossed by the Commission contained traces of monazite. The occasional belts of forest along the streams in the open bush country, north of the watershed between the Benue and Cross River systems, are mostly full of vine rubber (Landolphia). The forest line to the south of the Benue-Cross River watershed extends without a break to the Cross River, and from there to the sea. The trees grow to a great height, and the whole forest abounds in ebony, mahogany and other valuable timbers. The rains in the boundary districts begin in March with a few violent tornadoes, which become more frequent and less violent until May, and from that month till September heavy rain falls almost every day. By the end of September the rivers are in full flood, and the low-lying country is under water. In October the steady rain ceases, and at the end of the month the dry season sets in.