To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II - A Personal Narrative by Verney Lovett Cameron;Sir Richard Francis Burton
page 78 of 310 (25%)
page 78 of 310 (25%)
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secular upheaval of the island, and we find the same on the mainland.
There were fragments of grey granite, but not _in situ_; all had been washed from the continent, where it outlies all other formations. Water-rolled bits of brickstone also appeared; and hence, probably, Dr. Oscar Lenz [Footnote: _Geolog. Karte von West-Africa_. Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1882.] makes Axim and the neighbourhood consist of _rother Sandstein_ upon laterite. Bobowusúa is a cabinet of natural history. The northern flank is ever wet with dew and spray; the southern shows a little dry earth and sand. The latter in this and in other parts of the islet is a medley of comminuted shells. We collected cowries of four kinds, large and small, crabs and balani, lobsters and sea-urchins (_erinacei_) with short spines; diminutive rock-oysters and a large variety with iridescent mother-o'-pearl, pink, red and yellow. The latter yields a white seed-pearl, and here, perhaps, we might attempt to develope it into That great round glory of pellucid stuff, A fish secreted round a grain of grit. A single snake-slough and an eight-ribbed turtle were found. The short, sandy neck of the eastern knob is a playground for 'parson-crows' and scavengers (turkey-buzzards); hawks, kites, and fish-eagles, white and black, while the adjacent reefs are frequented by gulls, terns, and small cranes. Above the rock-line is a selvage of low vegetation--ipom[oe]a, white and mauve-flowered; rushes and tangle-grass, a variety of salsolaceæ, and the cyperus, whose stalk is used like the _kalam_, or reed-pen, further east. These growths are filmed with spiders' webs, whose central shafts lead to |
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