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The second road follows closely the left bank of the Ancobra: it is used by the Hausá soldiers, but only in the heart of the Dries, and it must be impassable during the Rains. Dr. But he cries up the Bushua or Dixcove-Tákwá line, upon which he has large concessions. I shall return to this subject in a future chapter.
At this season the entrance narrows to a few feet, the effect of a huge sandspit on the right lip, and carries only six feet of water. During the rains it will rise eleven feet at Sánmá, and at Tumento twenty-four feet in a day, falling with the same dangerous rapidity. We shall see more of the Ancobra, which here separates two districts.
He came out in the Dries of 1877 with the intention of dredging the Ancobra River where the natives dive for the precious metal. Hervey, who were curious to see the work. They remained only till the return of the mail-steamer, or about five weeks.
This difficulty cannot be got over, except at enormous expense, by making piers, but it might be surmounted by sending the plant ashore on small bar boats that could get up the Volta or Ancobra.
Five leagues to the westward of Cape Three Points, is Axim, where the Dutch have a fort; and about one league further to the westward is the mouth of the river Ancobra. Six leagues to the eastward of Cape Three Points, is Dix Cove, where we had a fort occupied by a small detachment of the Royal African Corps.
They then struck nearly due north; and, after walking three-quarters of an hour, perhaps two miles and a half, over a good open path, easily convertible into a cart-road, they reached the Inyoko Concession. It measures 2,400 yards square, beginning at the central shaft, on the northern side of the hill which gives it a name; and thus it lies only about eight miles westward of the Ancobra River.
The dip is exceedingly irregular: some lodes are almost vertical, and others quasi-horizontal. We now take the main road leading to the Ancobra.
The formation of the trough is that of the Ancobra, and the bed bristles with rocks. In a distance of seven miles and a half by course there were four small breaks, and one serious rapid about a hundred yards long, where the decline exceeded five feet. Here the men had to get overboard and to ease the canoe down the swirling waters, which dashed heavily on the rocks.
The steamers could then run alongside of them and discharge cargo for the coming tramway, while surf-boats carrying two or three tons could load for the Ancobra River. The eastern or inner continuation of Bobowusúa is Poké islet, a similar but smaller block. During spring-tides they are linked together and to the shore by reefs that stand up high and dry.
The rest of my story is told in a few words. I canoed safely down the Ancobra River, and reached Axim on April 14. This return was made sad and solitary by the absence of my canine friend, Nero. A week soon passed away at the port of the Gold-region. Mr. Grant presently returned from his excursion to the west.
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