40 lbs., or a maximum of 50 lbs., per diem; and they strike work if they
do not make daily half a dollar (2_s_. 3_d_.) to two dollars. They have
nests of wooden platters for pans, the oldest and rudest of all mechanical
appliances. The largest, two feet in diameter, are used for rough work in
the usual way with a peculiar turn of the wrist. The smallest are stained
black inside, to show the colour of gold; and the finer washings are
carried home to be worked at leisure during the night. This is peculiarly
women's work, and some are well known to be better panners than others;
they refuse to use salt-water, because, they say, it will not draw out the
gold.

The whole land is impregnated with the precious metal. I find it richer in
sedimentary gold than California was in 1859. Immediately behind the main
square of Axim a bank of red clay leads eastward to a shallow depression,
the old valley of the Besáon, a swamp during the rains backed by rising
and forested ground to the east. On the inland versant a narrow native
shaft has been sunk for gold by Mr. Sam, now native agent under Mr.
Crocker. We pounded and panned the rock, which yielded about twopence per
2 lbs., or one ounce to the ton. Observing its strike, we concluded that
it must extend through Mr. Irvine's property. Throughout the Gold Coast
auriferous reefs ran north-south, with easting rather than westing; the
deviation varies from 5º west to 15º-22º east; and I have heard of, but
not seen, a strike of north-east (45º) to south-west. This confirms the
'meridional hypothesis' of Professor Sedgwick, who stated, 'As some of the
great physical agencies of the earth are meridional, these agencies may
probably, in a way we do not comprehend, have influenced the deposit of
metals on certain lines of bearing.' We may also observe that all the
great mineral chains of the old and new world are meridional rather than
longitudinal, striking from north-east to south-west. The geologist's
theory, combined with the knowledge that the noble metal is 'chiefly found