But gold is not the only metal yielded by the Gold Coast. I have already
alluded in the preceding pages to sundry silver-lodes said to have been
worked by the old Hollanders. As is well known, there is no African gold
without silver, and this fact renders the legend credible. Even in these
dullest of dull days 63,337_l_. worth was the export of 1880. Iron is
everywhere, the land is stained red with its oxide; and manganese with
cobalt has been observed. I have mentioned that at Akankon my companion
showed me a large vein of cinnabar. Copper occurs in small quantities with
tin. This metal is found in large veins streaking the granite, according
to M. Dahse, who gave me a fine specimen containing some ten and a half
per cent. of metal. He has found as much as twelve per cent., when at home
2 to 2-1/2 per cent. pays. [Footnote: 'The present percentage of block-tin
derived from all the tin-ore ... of Cornwall is estimated at 2 per cent.,
or nearly 45 lbs. to the ton of ore.'--Davies, p. 391.] The aspect of the
land is diamantiferous; [Footnote: I hear with the greatest pleasure that a
syndicate has been formed for working the diamond-diggings of Golconda, a
measure advocated by me for many years.
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