Remarks on the topography and diseases of the Gold Coast / by R. Clarke.

  • Clarke, Robert.
Date:
[1860]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the topography and diseases of the Gold Coast / by R. Clarke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    13/62 (page 9)
    covered with copsewood interspersed'/mth a 'few cW^ trees, the elais Guineaensis, fan and date palms, with fores|' trees. In the lower gi-ounds cleared patches occur, sparsely covered with a gi-assy sward, and dotted over with clumps of trees; but the land under cultivation bears so very small proportion to that lying waste, which prevails to such an ex^J tent, that the former is the exception, and the latter the rule. The bush has,, however, been cleared away in different placed' in the suburbs by industrious persons, chiefly pensioners from ' the West India regiments, and these spots appear to much ad^' vantage when contrasted with the wilderness of jungle left in'' its primitive unproductiveness. About a mile from the castle, and to the north-west of it, there is a salt lake upwards of a mile in length, and half that distance in breadth. It is below the level of the ocean, from! which it is separated by a belt of sand, and is fiUed with wateiff intensely salt, which percolates from the sea through the inter-.' vening mound of sand. In the rainy season, the water faUih^* upon the hills which surround it is drained into the pond, ana'^^ its volume is still further increased by springs which ris'^'^^ through the spongy reed covered morass at its extremity^' When the rains are at their height, the area of the loch is greatly extended, portions of the adjoining land being regu-' larly flooded at that season. There are similar salt ponds in^ the immediate vicinity of Animaboo, Jamestown Accra, ahd'' Christianborgh Castle, from which the people obtain supplie'^,' , of crab and other fish. ; As regards health, the removal of the jungle, and the tiUa^^ of the waste lands in the neighbourhood of Cape Coast, wouldH free it from a perpetual source of febrile and dysenteric dis-' eases, which at all times more or less afilict its inhabitants. The son differs in different localities. In some places it is siliceous, or composed of a black and fertile loam; while in other. situations it is argillaceous, and of a reddish bro\vn co],our^'''' through which quartz, mica, and feldspar crop out i^m': hard baked clay is abundantly met with, which is intiinately'' blended with minute spangles of mica, and which is broken ' up with difficulty and labour. Many of the clays are riiade into pots, and arc in common use throughout the settlement'^' [ for cooking purposes, for which they are exceedingly well'' adapted. Very good bricks are also made from them. In several parts of the country, as Akim, Diukera, Tueful, and Wassaw, gold-digging is the occupation of large numbers of people, who resort thither from all parts of the settlement.?. All day and night, nothing is heard but i^he noise of digging, ' B 2