TO PRINCE'S RIVER AND BACK.
On February 15 we proceeded down coast to inspect the mining-lands of
Prince's River valley, east of Axim; and this time it was resolved to
travel by surf-boat, ignoring that lazy rogue the hammock-man. Yet even
here difficulties arose. Mast and sail were to be borrowed, and paddles
were to be hired at the rate of a shilling a day each. They are the life
of the fishing Aximites; yet they have not the energy to make them, and
must buy those made in Elmina.
The eastern coast, like that of Apollonia, is a succession of points and
bays, of cool-looking emerald jungle and of 'Afric's golden sands' reeking
with unkindly heat. Passing the long black tongue of Prépré, or Inkubun,
and the red projection, Ponta Terceira, we sighted the important Ajámera
village, so called from a tree whose young leaves show a tender
pinkish-red. On the Awazán Boppo Hill, about two miles from the
trial-shaft of his concession, Dr. Ross found a native 'Long Tom.' It was
a hollowed palm-trunk rotten with age, closed at one end and open at the
other, with a slant downwards; two forks supported it over a water-filled
hollow, measuring ten feet each way by three deep. Ajámera lies a little
west of the peninsula, _Africanicè_ Madrektánah, a jutting mass of naked
granite glazed red by sea-water: on either side of the sandy neck, pinned
down, like Pirate's Bay, by cocoa-nuts, there is the safest landing-place.
And now we sight our port, distant some nine miles from Axim.
In front rises Prince's Hill, clad in undergrowth with a topping tuft of
tall figs. At its eastern base lies the townlet, showing more whitewash
than usual; and, nearer still, the narrow mouth of the fiery little Yenna,
Prince's or St. John's River. The view is backed by the tall and wooded
ridge of Cape Threepoints, the southernmost headland of the Gold Coast,
behind which is Dixcove. It is interesting to us because a syndicate has
been formed, and engineers are being sent out to survey the pathless
'bush' between the sea and Tumento on the Ancobra, whose site was at the
time unknown. Cameron presently discovered that the Tákwá ridge is nearer
Axim than Dixcove is, and that the line would pass within easy distance of
Kinyanko, one of its _raisons d'être_.
This wild plan has been supported by sundry concessionists whose interests
lie behind Dixcove and at Kinyanko. Dixcove of the crocodile-worship has
one of the worst bars on the coast. Canoes and surf-boats must run within
biscuit-throw of the Rock Kum-Brenni [Footnote: In the Oji or
Ashanti-Fanti tongue _bro_ or _bronni_ (the Ga 'blofo') means somebody or
something European. It is derived from _abro_ (_blo_), maize, introduced
by white men; others say that when the first strangers landed upon the
coast, the women, who were grinding, said, 'These men are white as
maize-meal.' 'Abrokirri' (Europe) is, however, explained by the Rev. Mr.
Riis as perhaps a corruption of Puto, Porto, Portugal.] ('White Man's
Death'), and the surf will often shut up the landing-place for four or
five successive days. The place will become important, but not in this
way. The Rev. Mr. Milum, in whose pleasant society I voyaged, showed me
his sketch of the station with an isolated red 'butte,' possibly an island
of old, rising close behind the houses and trending north-south.
Grain-gold was found in it by the native schoolmaster, who dug where he
saw a thin smoke or vapour hovering over the ground: throughout the Coast
this, like the presence of certain ferns, is held a sure sign that the
precious ore is present. Moreover, a small nugget appeared in the swish
being prepared for a house-wall. Thus 'washing' will be easy and
inexpensive, and the Wesleyan mission may secure funds for extending
itself into the non-maritime regions.
We turned the boat's head shorewards, and, after encountering the normal
three seas, ran her upon the beach near the right jaw of Prince's River.
The actual mouth is between natural piers of sea-blackened trap-rock, and
the gullet behind it could at this season be cleared by an English hunter.
We unloaded and warped our conveyance round the gape till she rode safe in
the inner broad. And now we saw that Prince's is not the river of the
hydrographic chart, but a true lagoon-stream, the remains of a much larger
formation. There has been, here and on other parts of the coast, a little
archipelago whose islets directed the riverine courses; the shallows
between were warped up by mangrove and other swampy vegetation, and the
whole has become, after a fashion, _terra firma_. Each holm had doubtless
a core of rock, whose decay produced a rich soil. Now they are mounds and
ridges of red clay standing up abruptly, and their dense growths of dark
yew-like trees contrast with the yellowish produce of the adjacent miry
lowlands.
The chief of Prince's Town, Eshánchi, _alias_ 'Septimulus,' a name showing
a succession of seven sons, not without a suspicion of twins, would have
accompanied us up stream. Guinea-worm, however, forbade, and he sent a
couple of guides, one of whom, Wafápa, _alias_ 'Barnabas,' a stout, active
freedman of the village, proved very useful.
We resolved to shoot the banks going, and to collect botanical specimens
on return. The land appears poor in mammals, rich in avifauna, and
exceedingly abundant in insect life. Of larger animals there are leopards,
cat o' mountains and civet-cats, wild hog and fine large deer; we bought a
leg weighing 11-1/2 lbs., and it was excellent eating seasoned with 'poor
man's quinine,' _alias_ garlic. Natives and strangers speak of the
jungle-cow, probably the Nyaré antelope (_Bos brachyceros_) of the Gaboon
regions, the _empacasso_ of the Portuguese. Two small black squirrels,
scampering about a white-boled tree, were cunning enough never to give a
shot. We sighted only small monkeys with white beards and ruddy coats. 'He
be too clever for we,' said the Kruboys when the wary mannikins hid in the
bush. I saw nothing of the _kontromfi_, cynocephalus or dog-faced baboon,
concerning whose ferocity this part of Africa is full of stories. Further
north there is a still larger anthropoid, which the natives call a wild
man and Europeans a gorilla. The latter describe its peculiar whoop, heard
in the early night when the sexes call to each other.
Our results were two species of kingfishers (_alcedo_), the third and
larger kind not showing; a true curlew (_Numenius arquata_), charming
little black swallows (_Wardenia nigrita_), the common English swallow;
a hornbill (_buceros_), all feathers and no flesh; a lean and lanky
diver (_plotus_), some lovely little honeysuckers, a red oriole, a fine
vulture (_Gypohierax angolensis_), and a grand osprey (_hali[oe]tus_),
which even in the agonies of death would not drop his prey. Many other
birds were given over to Mr. Dawson, who worked from dawn till dusk. Mr.
Grant dropped from the trees three snakes, one green and two
slaty-brown. The collection found its way to the British Museum after
the usual extensive plunder, probably at a certain port, where it is
said professional collectors keep customhouse-men in pay. Mr. R. B.
Sharp was kind enough to name the birds, whose shrunken list will be
found at the end of the volume.
Cameron, observing for his map, was surprised by the windings of the bed;
we seemed ever within hearing of the sea. Where a holm of rock and bush
splits the course its waters swarm with fish, as shown by the weirs and
the baskets, large and small; some of its cat-fish (_siluri_) weigh 10
lbs. Every shoal bred oysters in profusion, young mangroves sprouted from
the submerged mollusk-beds, and the 'forests of the sea' were peopled with
land-crabs.
At first the vegetation of the banks was almost wholly of rhizophores,
white and red; the wood of the latter burns like coal, and the bark is
admirable for tanning. In places their long suckers, growing downwards to
the stream, resembled a cordwainer's walk set on end. A bush of
yellow-flowered hibiscus clothes the banks that are less level; and,
higher still, grows a tall and beautiful mimosa with feathery web and
pendent pods of brightest green and yellow. Then came the brabs and palms,
fan-, cocoa-, oil-, and bamboo-, with their trunks turned to nurseries of
epiphytes and air-plants. The parasites are clematis and a host with hard
botanical names.
Towards evening, as the stream narrowed, the spectacle was imposing. The
avenues and trees stood up like walls, but living walls; and in places
their billowy bulges seemed about to burst upon us like Cape-rollers.
Every contrast was there of light and dark, short and tall, thick and
thin; of age and death with lusty youth clinging around it; of the cocoa's
drooping frond and the aspiring arm of bombax, the silk-cotton-tree, which
rains brown gossamer when the wind blows; of the sloth-tree with its
topping tuft, and the tangled mantle of the calamus or rattan, a palm like
a bamboo-cane. The bristly pod of the dolichos (_pruriens_) hangs by the
side of the leguminosæ, from whose flattened, chestnut-coloured seeds
snuff-boxes are made further east. It was also a _floresta florida_, whose
giants are decked with the tender little blossoms of the shrub, and where
the bright bracts and yellow greens of this year's growth light up the
sombre verdure of an older date. The type of this growth is the red
camwood-tree, with its white flower of the sweetest savour. Imagine an
English elm studded with pinks or daisies, gardenias or hyacinths. There
is nothing more picturesque than the shiftings and changes of aspect upon
these African streams, which at first seem so monotonous. After dawn the
smoking water, feeling tepid to the hand and warmer than the atmosphere,
veils the lower levels and makes the forest look as if based on air. Noon
brings out every variety of distance with startling distinctness, and
night, especially moonlit night, blurs with its mists long tracts of
forest, rains silver over the ridges, and leaves the hollows in the
blackest shade. Seen from above, the sea of trees looks like green water
raised to waves by the wind, and the rustling in the breeze mimics the
sound of distant surf.
A catamaran of four cork-trees, a cranky canoe, the landing-place of a
bush-road, a banana-plantation, and a dwarf clearing, where sat a family
boiling down palm-nuts for oil, proved that here and there the lowland did
not lack lowlanders. The people stared at us without surprise, although
this was only the fourth time they had seen a surf-boat. The river-bed,
grid-ironed with rocky reefs, showed us twenty-two turns in a few miles;
some were horseshoe-bends, sweeping clean round to the south, and one
described a curve of 170º. After slow and interrupted paddling for an hour
and a half, at 6 P.M., when night neared, we halted at the village of
Esubeyah, or 'Water-made;' [Footnote: The radical of water is 'su,'
curiously corresponding with Turkish and with that oldest of the Turkish
tongues, Chinese.] and my companion made sure of his distances by a
latitudinal observation of Canopus.
Next morning we had 'English tea' for the first and last time in West
Africa; usually we preferred the Russian form, drunk in a tumbler with a
slice of lime that sinks or of lemon that floats. Mr. Gillett had given us
a bottle of 'Romanshorn' from the Swiss farm, an admirable preparation
which also yields fresh butter. The price is high, 1_s_. 6_d_. a bottle,
or, for the case of forty-eight imperial pints, 72_s_.; this, however, is
the Coast, not the cost figure. For invalids, who are nauseated by the
sickly, over-sugared stuff popularly called 'tin-juice,' and who feel life
put in them by rum and milk, it is an invaluable comfort.
We left Esubeyah in the 'lizard's sun' at 7 A.M., and found the river
changed for the worse. The freshets had uptorn from the banks the tallest
trees, which in places formed a timber-floor; and the surf-boat gallantly
charged, till she leaked, the huge trunks, over which she had often to be
lifted. Nothing would be easier than to clear away these obstacles; a few
pounds of gun-cotton would remove snags and sawyers, and dredging by boats
would do the rest. Then Prince's River would become an excellent highway.
An hour and a half's slow paddling placed us at the landing-place of Bekaí
(a village in general), the usual hole in the bush. Here navigation ends
in the dry season. We walked to and through the mean little settlement,
and established ourselves at Anima-kru, [Footnote: The English 'croom' is
a corruption of _kru-mu_ or _krum_, 'in the village.' Properly speaking
'kru' and 'man' are the town, or common centre of many _akura_
(plantation-hamlets), in which the owners keep their families and
_familiæ_.] a mile from the landing-place on the Yenna, or Prince's
River. It faces a splendidly wooded mound upon the right or opposite bank.
Mrá Kwámi, the headman, received us hospitably, cleared a house, and
offered us the usual palm-wine and snuff: the powder, composed of tobacco,
ginger, and cloves, is boxed in a round wild fruit.
The village contained only two men; the rest were drinking, at Prince's
town, the proceeds of a puncheon of palm-oil. The plantations still showed
fruits and flowers probably left by the Portuguese--wild oranges, mangoes,
limes, pine-apples, and the 'four o'clock,' a kind of 'marvel of Peru,'
supposed to open at that hour. The houses, _crépi_ or parget below and
bamboo above, are mere band-boxes raised from the ground; the smaller
perfectly imitated poultry-crates. All appeared unusually neat and clean,
with ornamental sheets of clam-shells trodden into the earth before the
thresholds. 'Fetish' was abundant, and so was that worst of all plagues
the sand-fly.
After breakfasting we set out north over a sandy level, clearly reclaimed
from the sea, and in a few minutes struck the true coast. Here begins the
St. John mining-ground, conceded for prospecting to Messieurs Gillett and
Selby. A fair path runs up hillocks of red-yellow clay, metalled with
rounded quartz and ironstone-gravel, roped with roots and barred with
trees; their greatest elevation may have been 120 feet. Two parallel
ridges, trending north-north-east, are bisected by torrents pouring
westward to the river: now dry, they have rolled down huge boulders in
their frequent floods. These 'hard-heads,' which try the hammer, show a
revetment of cellular iron upon a solid core of greenstone and bluish
trap. Some fragments not a little resembled the clay-slates of the
Brazilian gold-mines. Such was the concession which we named São João do
Principe.
Presently the chief, Mrá Kwámi, announced to us that we had reached the
northern boundary-line of the estate. He now would have left us, as it is
not customary, when gold is in question, for one head-man to enter
another's country. We succeeded, however, in persuading him to show us the
other side of the river. A short walk up and down hill led to the ford of
the 'Yenna,' the native name, probably a corruption of 'St. John.' It lies
a little above the dyke where the stream breaks into a dwarf fall, and
below the crossing where a ferry formerly plied. We now found a regular
river, no longer a lagoon-stream; the clear water, most unlike the
matter-suspending and bitumen-coloured fluid of the lower bed, was
beautified by lilies with long leaves and broad flowers of virgin white.
We rode the Kruboys pick-a-back across the broken reef through which the
stream bursts and brawls, and walked a few paces up the left bank to the
Kumasi [Footnote: The Ashantis translate the word 'under the Kum-tree;'
the Fantis make it mean 'slay all.'] village. It had been lately deserted;
but we found there Kwáko Benta, headman of Ajámera, who had spent a week
in forcing the deserters to rejoin the corps. He was the reverse of
cordial, probably wishing at once to prove importance and to give our
guide the cold shoulder: we persuaded him, however, to show us the Muku
concession, granted to Messieurs Lintott and Spink.
The ground which fronts the reef-ford reflects that of the left bank, and
is pitted with diggings, large and small. In a dry torrent-bed, running
north-south, was an oblong shaft, a native copy of European work, four
feet by six, and timbered in the usual negro way. Its further bank was a
high and steep slope of yellow clay with a midway step, containing another
and a similar shaft: to the north and west were many other signs of
exploitation. The rich-looking quartz of the lode is white and sugary,
with black streaks and veins: its strike is nearly meridional, between
north 20º and 25º east, and the dip 40º-45º east. A glance shows that
_Fluthwerk_ and 'hydraulicking' would easily wash down the whole alluvial
and auriferous formation to the floor of grey granite which has supplied
the huge 'cankey-stones' [Footnote: This proto-historic implement, also
called a 'saddle-quern,' is here made out of a thick slab of granite
slightly concave and artificially roughened. The muller, or mealing-stone,
is a large, heavy, and oval rolling-pin used with the normal rocking and
grinding motion. These rollers are also used for crushing ore, and
correspond with the stone _polissoirs_ of ancient date.] littering the
village. Cameron, who had before visited the site, and had remarked how
vigorously the placer-gravels had been attacked by the natives, would
'hydraulick' by means of the St. John's River. This might also be done by
damming up and tapping the adjacent bottom. And, if routine work be
wanted, it would cost little to construct upon the topmost crest a large
reservoir with channels to conduct the rains, and thus secure a fair fall
for the water.
We slept once more at Anima-kru; and here Cameron made sure of his
position by Jupiter and Procyon, and by his valuable watch-chronometer,
the gift of his brother-officers: it worked peculiarly well. The St.
John's mine lies in north lat. 4º 49' 44", and in west long. (G.) 2º 6'
44". While the owners would place it seven miles from the sea, it is
distant only 2.2 from 'old Fort Brandenburg.' Early next morning we packed
and prepared for return, the chief Mrá Kwámi insisting upon escorting us.
And now the difference of travel in Africa and England struck me forcibly.
Fancy a band of negro explorers marching uninvited through the Squire's
manor, strewing his lawn and tennis-ground with all manner of rubbish;
housing their belongings in his dining- and drawing- and best bed-rooms,
which are at once vacated by his wife and family; turning his cook out of
his or her kitchen; calling for the keys of his dairy and poultry-yard,
hot-houses, and cellar; and rummaging the whole mansion for curios and
heirlooms interesting to the negro anthropologist. Fancy also their
bidding him to be ready next morning for sporting and collecting purposes,
with all his pet servants, his steward and his head-gardener, his
stud-groom and his gamekeeper; and allowing, by way of condescension, Mr.
Squire to carry their spears, bows, and arrows; bitterly deriding his
weapons the while, as they proceed to whip his trout-stream, to pluck his
pet plants, to shoot his pheasants, and to kill specimens of his rarest
birds for exhibition in Africa. Fancy their enquiring curiously about his
superstitions, sitting in his pew, asking for bits of his East window, and
criticising his 'fetish' in general, ending with patting him upon the back
and calling him a 'jolly old cock.' Finally, fancy the Squire greatly
enjoying such treatment, and feeling bitterly hurt unless handled after
this fashion. Paddling down stream, we collected for Kew. But the
hopelessness of the task weighs upon the spirits: a square mile of such
flora would take a week. There is a prodigious variety of vegetation, and
the quantity of edible berries, 'fowl's lard,' 'Ashanti-papaw,' and the
Guinea-peach (_Sarcophalus esculentus_) would gladden the heart of a
gorilla. Every larger palm-trunk was a fernery; every dead bole was an
orchidry; and huge fungi, two feet broad, fed upon the remains of their
victims. Climbers, chiefly papilionaceous, and llianas, bigger than the
biggest boa-constrictor, coiled and writhed round the great gloomy trees
which rained their darkness below. In the sunlight were pretty jasmines
(_J. grande_), crotons and lantanas, with marantas, whose broad green
leafage was lined with pink and purple. Deep in shadow lay black miry
sloughs of sickening odour, near which the bed of Father Thames at low
water would be scented with rose-water; and the caverns, formed by the
arching roots of the muddy mangrove, looked haunts fit for crocodile and
behemoth and all manner of unclean, deadly beasts. And there are little
miseries for African collectors. 'Wait-a-bit' thorns tear clothes and
skin. Tree-snakes turn the Kru-boys not pale but the colour of boiled
liver; their 'bowels fail them,' as the natives say. Each tree has its
ant, big or small, black or red; and all sting more or less. We see their
armies marching up the trunks, and the brush of a bough brings down a
little shower. Monstrous mangrove-flies and small brown-coloured 'huri,'
most spiteful biters, and wasps here and there, assail the canoe; and we
are happy if we escape a swarm of the wild bees: their curious,
treacle-like honey is enjoyed by the people.
We landed in due time at 'Prinsi,' whose civilised chief had laid out a
clean path, lined with umbrella-figs backed by a bush of self-sown guavas.
A good upper-storied house was found for us, with standing bedsteads,
sofa, table, and chairs. It belonged to one of the _penins_, or elders.
The chapel, with its three front and five lateral windows, is the best we
have yet seen. The schoolmaster, Mr. Sego, lives in a house hard by; and
the adjacent school, a wattled cottage, echoes to the voices of some
thirty to forty scholars. The town looks prosperous. Building is easy;
oysters and other shells supply lime; the clay dug to the north makes good
adobes, and stone is easily quarried from the old fort.
We found Prince's in a state of unusual jollity, drinking the proceeds of
their three puncheons, dancing and playing what Sá Leone calls
'warry.' [Footnote: A game with counters and holes in the ground or a board
hollowed with cups. The same, called _báo_, or tables, is found in East
Africa (Zanzibar) and Cameron traced it extending clear across the Dark
Continent.] The bell and the psalm blended curiously with the song and the
palm-clapping that announces negro terpsichore. Of course 'fetish' was
present, in the shape of a woman peculiarly ornamented. Her very black
face was dazzlingly chalked, lines by threes running from hair-roots to
nose-bridge and meeting others drawn across the temples; the orbits of the
eyes were whitened, and thence triple streaks stretched up the nose and
across the cheeks. Hung to the extensive necklace of beads and other
matters were tassels of dry white fibre; her forearms carried yellow
bunches of similar material, and she held a broom of blackened bamboo and
the metal bell familiar to Unyamwezi. Whilst the juniors danced and sang
the elders drank and gambled.
After a cool and comfortable night we visited the ruins which Bosman calls
Casteel Groot Frederiksburg tot Pocquesoe (Prince's). Our Hydrographic
Chart has 'old fort Brandenburg,' which is at Cape Threepoints. Others
declare that it was the only good establishment owned by the Elector; and
the best authority, Lieut. Jeekel, terms it G Friedrichsburg (Hollandia).
I may note that 'Prinsi 'Ollandia' is still the native name. These
buildings interest us greatly, because in the coming days of immigration
they will serve for hospitals, stores, and barracoons. Ascending a few
feet of bushy hill, called in books 'Mamfra,' and once evidently an
island, we came upon the eastern flank, three substantial bastions and a
cavalier, with masonry knitted by creepers. We then wound round by the
southern or sea side, and, turning the angle, made the eastern flank. The
gateway, stockade, and belfry shown in Bosman ('Eerste Brief,' 1737) have
disappeared; so also has the slave-court, but the double doorway remains.
The spacious centre, planted with bananas almost wild, would make a grand
garden; the walls are built to stand for ages; and, although the floors of
the upper stories have been torn down, there would be no difficulty in
restoring them. As steps and stairs are absent, it was not possible to
reach the battlements. These are luxuriant with vegetation, of which I
should preserve a portion for shade and coolth. A fine arched cistern now
affords a shelter to bats; and a building which appears to be the chapel
remains on the northern side. Old iron guns still cumber the embrasures
and the ground.
Issuing by the northern face, which has been torn down for ashlar, we set
up the photographic stand and took the north-western angle. Here an
enormous fig draws its life from the death of the wall. The morning air in
the shade was delicious, a great contrast with the heavy dampness of Axim;
and the view of the St. John's River west and of Cape Threepoints east was
charming. With usual neglect the photographer had sent out his machine and
dry plates without any means of developing them; we therefore worked
blindly and could not see results.
When embarking in Prince's Bay, where the surf was perfectly safe, we were
informed a little too late of a valuable gold-mine called Kokobené. It
lies close behind the village Akitáki, which we had seen during our
morning's walk along the beach leading to Cape Threepoints. The chief,
Eshánchi, promised to forward specimens of the reefs, and did not forget
to keep his promise. The quartz-specimens which were brought to us at
Akankon by Wafápa, or Barnabas, promised excellently, and I authorised Mr.
Grant to buy an exploring right of the Kokobené-Akitáki diggings. Their
position as well as their quality will render them valuable: they will
prove a second Apatim.
We returned to Axim on February 19, after a short but very satisfactory
trip which added much to our knowledge of the coast and its ways. It had
also the merit of being economical; we took matters in hand, and
consequently our four days cost us only 2_l_. 8_s_.
I have spoken much about 'hydraulicking' in this chapter, and I shall now
borrow a few details concerning the operation from Sir William Logan, who,
in his 'Geological Survey of Canada,' quotes Mr. William P. Blake.
Speaking of California, the learned author writes, 'In this method the
force of a jet of water with great pressure is made available both for
excavating and washing the auriferous earth. The water, issuing in a
continuous stream with great force from a large hose-pipe like that of a
fire-engine, is directed against the base of a bank of earth and gravel,
and tears it away. The bank is rapidly undermined, the gravel is loosened,
violently rolled together, and cleansed from any adhering particles of
gold, while the fine clay and the sand are carried off by the water. In
this manner hundreds of tons of earth and gravel may be removed, and all
the gold which they contain liberated and secured with greater ease and
expedition than ten tons could be excavated and washed in the old way. All
the earth and gravel of a deposit is moved, washed, and carried off
through long sluices by the water, leaving the gold behind. Square acres
of earth on the hill-sides may thus be swept away into the hollows without
the aid of a pick or a shovel in excavation. Water performs all the
labour, moving and washing the earth in one operation, while in excavating
by hand the two processes are of necessity entirely distinct. The value of
this method and the yield of gold as compared with the older one can
hardly be estimated.
'The water acts constantly with uniform effect, and can be brought to bear
upon almost any point, where it would be difficult for men to work. It is
especially effective in a region covered by trees, where the tangled roots
would greatly retard the labour of workmen. In such places the stream of
water washes out the earth from below, and tree after tree falls before
the current, any gold which may have adhered to the roots being washed
away. With a pressure of sixty feet and a pipe of from one and a half to
two inches' aperture, over 1,000 bushels of earth can be washed out from a
bank in a day.
'Earth which contains only one-twenty-fifth part of a grain of gold, equal
to one-fifth of a cent in value to the bushel, may be profitably washed by
this method; and any earth or gravel which will pay the expense of washing
in the old way gives enormous profits by the new process. To wash
successfully in this way requires a plentiful supply of water, at an
elevation of from fifty to ninety feet above the bed-rock, [Footnote: This
is by no means necessary. The jet can be thrown from below like the
fireman's hose playing upon a burning house. I shall return to this highly
important subject.] and a rapid slope or descent from the base of the bank
of earth to be washed, so that the waste water will run off through the
sluices, bearing with it gravel, sand, and suspended clay.
* * * * *
'In the case of a deposit in North Carolina, where ten men were required
for thirty-five days to dig the earth with pick and shovel and wash it in
sluices, two men with a single jet of water could accomplish the same work
in a week. The great economy of this method is manifest from the fact that
many old deposits in the river-beds, the gravel of which had been already
washed by hand, have again been washed with profit by the hydraulic
method.
'In California the whole art of working the diluvial gold-deposits was
revolutionised by this new method. The auriferous earth lying on hills and
at some distance above the level of the watercourses would in the ordinary
methods be excavated by hand and brought to the water, but by the present
system the water is brought by aqueducts to the gold-deposits, and whole
square miles which were before inaccessible have yielded up their precious
metal. It sometimes happens from the irregular distribution of the gold in
the diluvium in California that the upper portions of a deposit do not
contain gold enough to be washed by the ordinary methods, and would thus
have to be removed at a considerable expense in order to reach the richer
portion below. By the hydraulic method, however, the cost of cutting away
and excavating is so trifling that there is scarcely any bank of earth
which will not pay the expense of washing down in order to reach the rich
deposits of gold beneath.'
To conclude. Our collection of plants was sent to the Herbarium, Kew; and,
as the Appendix (II. Part II.) shows, was kindly catalogued by the learned
Professor D. Oliver.