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The geologist's theory, combined with the knowledge that the noble metal is 'chiefly found among palæozoic rocks of a quartzose type, is practically valuable on the Gold Coast. Every mound or hillock of red clay contains one or more quartz-reefs, generally outcropping, but sometimes buried in the subsoils. They can always be struck by a cross-cut trending east-west.
It lies at the south-western end of a butte, one of a series disposed in parallel ranges and trending in the usual direction. All have quartz-reefs buried in red clay, and are well wooded, with here and there small clearings. The names are modern Crocker's Reef to the east, Sam's Reef, and so forth. Then I passed an admirably appointed saw-mill.
Indeed, when the wanderers who know it best gather for the time being in noisy construction camp or beside the snapping fire where the new wagon road cleaves the silent bush, they tell tales of lost quartz-reefs and silver leads as fantastic as those of the genii-guarded treasures of the East, and the men who have been out on the gold trail generally believe them.
"Impossible, but true!" The night at the ruins was dry and cool, even cold; disturbed only by the coughing of the men, the moaning of the camels, and the bleating of the sheep. We would willingly have spent here another day, but water and forage were absolutely wanting; and the guides assured us that even greater marvels, in the shape of ruins and quartz-reefs, lay ahead.
It rises gently in slopes of yellow clay towards the west, and doubtless it covers quartz-reefs, as the lay is the usual meridional. The talus, pitted with the shallow pans called 'women's washings, shows signs of hard work, probably dating from the days when every headman had his gang of 'pawns' and slaves.
The nomadic digger who called no man master is a steady-going wage-earner now. Coal-mines and quartz-reefs are the mainstays of Westland. Company management, trade unions, conciliation cases, and laws against Sunday labour have succeeded the rough, free-and-easy days of glittering possibilities for everybody. Even the alluvial fields are now systematically worked by hydraulic sluicing companies.
Near Grand Bassam free gold in quartz-reefs near the shore has been reported. We now reach the Gold Coast proper, which amply deserves its glorious golden name. I have shown that the whole seaboard of West Africa, between it and Morocco, produces more or less gold; here, however, the precious metal comes down to the very shore and is washed upon the sands.
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