The gold-provinces best known to us are now three--Wasa, of which these
pages treat; Akim, the hill-land, an easy journey of a week north with
westing from Akra; and Gyaman, the rival of Ashanti.
Akim is divided into eastern and western. Mr. H. Ponsonby, when travelling
through both regions, found the natives getting quantities of gold by
digging holes eight to ten feet deep on either side of the forest-paths.
He saw as much as three ounces taken up in less than half an hour. Around
the capital of eastern Akim, Kyebi, or Chyebi, the land is also
honeycombed with man-holes, making night-travel dangerous to the stranger.
It requires a sharp eye to detect the deserted pits, two feet in diameter
and 'sunk straight, as if they had been bored with huge augurs.' I have
seen something of the kind in the water-meadows near Shoreham. The workman
descends by foot-holes, and works with a hoe four to six inches long by
two broad: when his calabash is filled it is drawn up by his companions.
The earthquakes of April and July 1862 [Footnote: I happened to be at Akra
during the convulsion of July 10. The commandant, Major (now Colonel) de
Buvignes, and I set out for a stroll along the sands to the west.
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