The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, volume 2 (of 2): By His Wife, Isabel BurtonBurton, Isabel, Lady
History
The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, volume 2 (of 2): By His Wife, Isabel Burton
Burton, Isabel, Lady
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Scholars -- Great Britain -- Biography
"A case in point. One of my correspondents kindly forwarded to me a
copy of Mr. Lowman's last report to the directors of the African Gold
Coast Syndicate, Limited. This manager, sent out to develop the huge
and rich 'Ingotro Concession,' reached Axim only on August 16th. On
reaching his destination he was at once informed by Chief Appo that
the bottom of the Nánwá Valley, an old lagoon, abounds in gold, 'if we
could but only get water out.' After puddling and washing, 'with extra
good results,' sundry samples of the clay, he cut on the east bank of
the rivulet a drain 350 feet long by 3 feet wide and 2½ feet deep,
with a fall of 1 in 80. I may remind you that the stream in question,
as shown by Captain Cameron's map, 'snakes' all down its valley, and
that ditches from one loop to another would lay bare a great length of
bed. Its width varies from 15 to 30 feet; the depth from 18 inches to
6 feet, and it runs all the year round. Mr. Lowman began another drain
400 feet long, to cross-cut the lagoon, which now infects the lower
bed of the Nánwá, and which would easily empty into the Ancobra. He
proposed to hydraulic with 350 feet of troughs or sluice-boxes, which
were all ready for laying, and one Molyneux box (loose hopper, patent
riffles, and slide tables), 'the first ever made or used on the Gold
Coast.' A sketch of the 'flats' and of the machinery was attached to
the report, and I can say nothing except in their praise.
"The lagoon clay to be puddled and 'Molyneux'd' is described as a
still, yellow argile, resting upon a hard bottom of quartz pebbles.
The cuttings opened up drifts of black sand, considered to be 'highly
auriferous' (see the 'Gold Book'), and these were reserved for
washing at convenience. The results of panning and cradling on the
Nánwá flats, and on the whole line as far as Kitza, yielded samples
varying from 4 dwts. to 10 ozs. per cubic yard of stuff. What would
California and Australia say to those figures? Mr. Lowman adds, and I
believe him, 'There is no property between Axim and Tacquah so well
adapted for hydraulicking and alluvial mining in all its branches
as the Ingotro Concession. There is plenty of water and a good fall
for tailings by simply cutting channels from river bend to bend, and
letting them run into one of the deep valleys or carrying them direct
to the Ancobra river. Another great advantage is that the Ingotro
mines can be worked at one-half the expense of any quartz mine on
the coast. Water here will do the work of steam with half the number
of hands. The whole of the Nánwá Valley is auriferous, good payable
ground, which would take sixty to seventy years to work out, without
touching the quartz.' Now we come to what will greatly benefit the
climate, the only weak point noted at Ingotro by Cameron and myself.
'An absolute necessary piece of work will be to clear the river banks
and to remove the trees which have fallen across the bed. We must also
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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