reservoir only, but also from below by a force-pump. Water is procurable
at all seasons by means of Norton's Abyssinian tubes, [Footnote: The
Egyptian campaigners seem to have thought of these valuable articles
somewhat late in the day. Yet two years ago I saw one working at
Alexandria.] and the brook-beds, dammed above and below, will form
perennial tanks. I am surprised that English miners on the Gold Coast have
not borrowed this valuable hint to wash from the people who have practised
it since time immemorial. Wherever we read, as on Mr. Wyatt's map,
'Gold-dust found in all these streams;' 'Natives dive for gold in the
dry,' and 'Old gold-shafts all along this track,' we should think of
'hydraulicking.'

2. The natives, here and elsewhere, prospect for and work the bank-reefs
after the subtending gutter-bed has proved auriferous. There is, however,
no connection between the two, and the precious metal in the subsoil is
either swept down by the floods or washed out of the sides, as we shall
see on the Ancobra River.

3. The negroes, who ignore pumps and steam-navvies, have neglected the
obvious measure of deep-digging in all the stream-beds, where much
detrital gold and even nuggets will assuredly be found. This should be
done either by shafting or by opening with 'steam-navvies' the whole
course of the channel during the 'Dries.'

Regaining the main road and passing towards the northern town, which is
separated from southern Axim by the fort and the grassy drill-ground, we
cast a look at a heap of rotting cases at last stored under a kind of
shed. Though labelled 'Akim' by the ungeographical manufacturer, they
contain a board-house, with glass windows and all complete, intended for
Axim, and eventually for the District-commissioner, Tákwá. But, with a