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Messieurs Allan and Plisson, who were floating down in a surf-boat, gave me the news that the steam-launch Effuenta had at last succumbed in the struggle for life. I landed at Akromási, a village where the true bamboo-cane grows, and found the soil to be a grey sandy clay; there were many 'women's washings' near the settlement.
Owing to his brave exertions the future of the Effuenta mine is very promising: it will teach those to come 'how to do it, in contrast with another establishment which is the best guide 'how not to do it. If the Board prove itself efficient, this property will soon pay a dividend. But imperfect pumps have been sent out, and the result is a highly regretable block.
Ex-missionary Dawson passed through the station; and I was unfortunate in missing the former. 'Effuenta House' is a long narrow tenement of bamboo and thatch, divided into six or seven rooms, and built upon a platform of stone and swish raised seven feet off the ground. All the chambers open upon a broad verandah, which shades the platform.
Neither here nor in any of the mines have stone-breakers or automatic feeders yet been introduced: the stuff is all hand-spalled. One small 'Belleville' drives the stamps, another works the Tangye pump, and a third turns the saw-mills. I will notice a few differences between the Swanzy system and that of Effuenta. The wooden framework of the stamp-mill is better than iron.
The second headman of Tumento, when pressed, managed to secure a very small load. But as payment is by weight, 6d. per 10 lbs. from the river to Effuenta, and no subsistence is allowed, his gains were small in proportion; he received for three days only 9d., the ordinary value of porter's rations.
Though the hill-side faces south it is beyond reach of the sea-breeze; the damp and wooded depression breeds swarms of sand-flies, and being only forty feet above the river, it is reeking hot. It will be a question which season will here prove the safest for working. On the coast I should say the Rains; in the higher lands about the Effuenta mine I am told that the Dries must be preferred.
Eastwards there is a corresponding feature called by the English 'Quartz Creek: it breaks through the ridge in the southern section of the Effuenta property and unites with the Tákwá. My aneroid showed the height of the crest to be 260 feet above sea-level, and about 160 above the valley. Mr. Wyatt has raised it to 1,400 feet a curious miscalculation. At Effuenta I found Mr.
Report says that from this part of the lode, which is riddled with native pits, came some of the specimens that floated the G. C. M. Company. Succeeds in due order the African Gold Coast Company, French and English, which was brought out in 1878. I have described the Effuenta, its southern neighbour.
At present the cost of transport from Tumento to Effuenta is 6d. for 10 lbs., 8d. to Tákwá, and 10 d. to Abosu. The head of the valley shows a single stream, the Babeabárbawo or Tákwá rivulet, rising close to the works of the Gold Coast Company.
After walking from Effuenta seven and a half geographical miles in three hours and forty-five minutes, I reached the establishment known as Crockerville. It dates from 1879, and in 1880 it forwarded its first remittance of 11l. 10s. to England. The village was laid out under the superintendence of Mr. Sam, the ablest native employé it has ever been my fortune to meet.
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