THE NEXT DREDGING FIELD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 22, 20 November 1900, Page 4

THE NEXT DREDGING FIELD.

Whih the Pdfrtuguese, who were the first European axplorera, first landed in ef Benin, the; foand the satire women washing gold duat out of the sand,on the seashore, jaat as thojie women's descendants wash it now. The name of the Gold Coast wai not ; idly given- It ia little exaggeration to 1 lay mat every man and woman in this part of- Ai ie», and l>z 6me way iato the hinterland, possesses a gold ornament, big or littlei. The gravei nearly always contain gold, buried very much after the old Qotbio manner with the corpse, so ihaa the departed might havo the wherewithal to nuke a start in the ntxt wond. In the western part of the ooloay—ia Gaps Coast (the town; Almina and Sekaadi, after a heavy shower of rain, the women may bean seen washing gold ont of the very mod of the streets. In Sekundi Boy the-.Wishing of gold on the seashore

yield* from 3i to 10s a day to the labourer; and here, it may be remarked, there are observable at least three thin beds of conglomerate. It is conjectured, reasonably enough, that the bed of she bay itself contains, and

that at the depth of a couple of ' fathoms or so, as immeme and probably rich deposit of gold,, which has ' never been touched, and awaits the

bind of science. There ia gold in the rivers; then is gild everywhere 1 The problem is how to win it pro- . fitably.

Starting from-a point jast north of Axim, and running a line through Dix Gove, Sekundi, Almina, Cape Coast, Anamaba, and trending north-east, the country to enolesed is simply honeycombed with thafts sunk by natives. For the most part these are atandqned gold workings. The native works down until he ia stopped by '. water. He is not equipped mechanically or mentally to battle with such a difficulty as the flooding of a mine. There is a mining proverb, as true as most proverbs, that the best part of the reef is always under water. If this applies to the Gold Coast worklogs, then, notwithstanding the antiquity of the native industry only the poorer earth has yet been mined. Generally speakicg, it does not pay the native 13 work a rsef of leßSthan 2jjs to the ton, which represents about the minimum value of tint which has hitherto been handled.