_February 3_.--The night had been somewhat noisy with the hyena-like screams which startled our soldiers _en route_ to Kumasi. They are said to proceed from a kind of hyrax (?) about the size of a rabbit; the Krumen call it a 'bush-dog', and, as will appear, Cameron holds it to be a lemur. The morning was cool, but not clear, and the country so far like the 'Garden of Eden' that there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. But the mist was a Scotch mist, which, in less humid lands, might easily pass for fine rain; and the drip, drip, drip of heavy dew-drops from the broad banana-leaves sounded like a sharp shower. At this hour the birds are wide awake and hungry; a hundred unknown songsters warble their native wood-notes wild. The bush resounds with the shriek of the parrot and the cooing of the ringdove, which reminds me of the Ku-ku-ku (Where, oh, where?) of Umar-i-Khayyam. Its rival is the _tsil-fui-fui-fui_, or 'hair grown,' meaning that his locks are too long and there is no one to cut or shave them. Upon the nearest tall tree, making a spiteful noise to frighten away all specimens, sits the 'watch-bird,' or _apateplu_, so called from his cry; he is wary and cunning, but we bagged two. The 'clock-bird,' supposed to toll every hour, has a voice which unites the bark of a dog, the caw of a crow, and the croak of a frog: he is rarely seen and even cleverer than 'hair grown.' More familiar sounds are the _roucoulement_ of the pigeon and the tapping of the woodpecker. The only fourfooted beast we saw was the small bush-antelope with black robe, of which a specimen was brought home, and the only accident was the stinging of a Kruboy by a spider more spiteful than a scorpion. Reaching the ground after a ten minutes' walk, we examined the principal reef as carefully as we could. The strike is nearly north-south, the dip easterly, and the thickness unknown. The trial-shaft, sunk by Mr. Walker in the centre of the southern line, was of considerable size, eight by twelve feet; and the depth measured thirty, of which four held water based upon clay-mud. The original native shafts to the south are of two kinds, the indigenous chimney-pit and the parallelogram-shaped well borrowed from Europeans. The latter varied in dimensions from mere holes to oblongs six by seven feet; and all the more important were roofed and thatched with pent-houses of palm-leaf, to keep out the rain. The shaft-timbering, also a loan from foreigners, consisted of perpendicular bamboo-fronds tied with bush-rope to a frame of poles cut from small trees; they corresponded with our sets and laths. There were rude ladders, but useful enough, two bamboos connected by rungs of 'tie-tie.' The 'sollars' were shaky platforms of branches, but there was no sign of a winch.