At first glance archives and manuscript collections in SOAS Library do not provide an obvious resource for information relating to the natural environment of Nigeria. The scholars, missionaries, civil servants and business men who have deposited their papers in SOAS Library were primarily concerned with the peoples of Africa and Asia and their antiquities, customs, folklore, languages, literature, trading practices etc rather than with the natural world. But when one comes to examine these collections more closely it is surprising how much one can find that does throw light on the climate, the vegetation, on agriculture and natural resources, sometimes on the general flora and fauna, always on any exceptional sightings of the wilder animals or birds and on the local terrain.