On February 8 we left Arábokasu, intending to march upon the 'Inyoko Concession.' Our guide and people, however, seemed to change every five minutes what they might call their 'minds,' and at last they settled to try the worst, but to us the most interesting line. At 8 A.M. we struck into the bush viâ a heap of huts, the 'Matinga' village, at the south-eastern corner of the fine mineral property. Here 'women's washings' again appeared. At the Achyáko settlement we crossed the two branches of the Fía. One measures twenty feet wide and two feet six inches deep in the dry season; it runs a knot an hour, and thus the supply is ample. About a mile further on we were carried across the Gwabisa stream, four feet wide by eighteen inches deep, running over a bed of quartz-pebbles. This ended the 'true coast.'
The 'false coast' began close to the little settlement known as Ashankru. It shows a fine quartz-reef, striking north fourteen degrees east. The formation was shown by the normal savannah and jungle-strips. About noon we were ferried over the eastern arm of the Ebumesu, known as the Pápá. I have noted scanty belief in the bar of the Ebumesu proper, the western feature. The eastern entrance, however, perhaps can be used between the end of December and March, and in calm weather would offer little difficulty to the surfboats transhipping machinery from the steamers.
Beginning a little east of the Esyámo village, the Pápá lagoon subtends the coast. We shot over it in the evening, and at night found quarters at the Ezrimenu village marked Ebu-mesu in old maps.
This return march of two hours or so had been a mere abomination. The path, which had not been cleared, led through a tangle of foul and fetid thicket, upon which the sun darted a sickly, malignant beam. Creepers and llianas, some of which are spiny and poisonous, barred the thread of path, which could not be used for hammocks. The several stream-beds, about to prove so precious, run chocolate-tinted water over vegetable mire, rich, when stirred, in sulphuretted hydrogen. The only bridges are fallen trunks. Amongst the minor pests are the nkran, or 'driver,' the ahoho, a highly-savoured red ant, and the hahinni, a large black formica terribly graveolent; flies like the tzetze, centipedes, scorpions, and venomous spiders, which make men 'writhe like cut worms.' There was a weary uniformity in the closed view, and the sole breaks were an occasional plantation or a few pauper huts, with auriferous swish, buried in that eternal green.
God made the country and man made the town,
sang the silly sage, who evidently had never seen a region untouched by the human hand. Finally, this 'Fía route' will probably become the main line from Axim to the Izrah mine, and the face of the country will be changed within a year.
As I was still weak Cameron and Mr. Grant early next morning (Feb. 9) canoed over the 300 yards or so of the Pápá lagoon bounding Ezrimenu village on the landward side. They then struck nearly due north; and, after walking three-quarters of an hour, perhaps two miles and a half, over a good open path, easily convertible into a cart-road, they reached the Inyoko Concession. It measures 2,400 yards square, beginning at the central shaft, on the northern side of the hill which gives it a name; and thus it lies only about eight miles westward of the Ancobra River. The ground has not been much worked of late years, but formerly Kwáko Akka, the tyrant of Apollonia, 'rich in blood and ore,' who was deposed by the British Colonial Government about 1850, and was imprisoned in Cape Coast Castle, is said to have obtained from it much of his wealth.
They found the strike of the hill approximately north 22º east (true); [Footnote: In laying down limits great attention must be paid to variation. As a rule 19º 45' west has been assumed from the Admiralty charts—good news for the London attorney. At Tumento this figure rises to 20º; upon the coast it must be changed to 19º 15' (W.), and in other places to 16º 40'.] the dip appears to be easterly, and the natives have worked the Abbruch or débris which have fallen from the reef-crest. This wall may be a continuation of the Akankon formation; both are rich in a highly crystalline quartz of livid blue, apparently the best colour throughout the Gold Region. The surface-ground, of yellowish marl with quartz-pebbles, is evidently auriferous, and below it lies a harder red earth rusty with iron. From the southern boundary of the Inyoko concession, and the village of that name, runs a strong outcrop of a kindly white quartz, which, when occurring in conjunction with the blue, usually denotes that both are richer than when a single colour is found. Such at least is Cameron's experience.
Mr. Walker, who secured this concession also, notes that the native pits were very shallow and superficial. He was pressed for time, and sunk his trial-shaft but little more than three fathoms: here free gold was visible in the blue quartz, which yielded upwards of one ounce per ton.
My companion found the shaft still open, and observed that the valley contained many holes and washing-pits. One was pointed out to him by Mr. Grant as having yielded twenty ounces of dust in one day: these reports recall the glories of California and Australia in the olden time. The little Etubu water, which runs 200 yards from the shaft, would easily form a reservoir, supplying the means of washing throughout the year. Here, then, are vast facilities for hydraulic work; millions of cubic feet can be strained of thin gold at a minimum expenditure. There will be less 'dead work,' and 'getting' would be immediate. Thus, too, as in California, the land will be prepared for habitation and agriculture, and the conditions of climate will presently be changed for the better.