I
have before noticed the traditions of Mount Geddia, an occidental
Kilima-njaro. About the parallel of Sierra Leone the feature splits into a
network of ranges, curves, and zigzags, which show no general trend. The
eastern faces here shed to the Niger, the western to the various streams
between the Rokel-Seli, the Gambia, and the Senegal; and the last northern
counterforts sink into the Sahara Desert. The western versant supplies the
gold of Senegambia, the southern that of Ashanti and Wasa. The superficial
dust is washed down by rains, floods, and rivers; and the dykes and veins
of quartz, mostly running north-south, are apparently connected with those
of the main range.
That such a chain must exist is proved by the conduct of the Gold Coast
streams. The Ancobra, for instance, which often rises and falls from
twenty to forty feet in twenty-four hours, suggests that its sources
spring from an elevated plane at no great distance from the sea. The lands
south of the Kong Mountains are grassy and hilly with extensive plains.
This is known through the 'Donko slaves,' common on the coast. Many of
them come from about Salagha, the newly-opened mart upon the Upper Volta;
they declare that the land breeds ostriches and elephants, cattle and
camels, horses and asses.
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