Liberia 



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colour, and makes admirable road material. Grey gneiss is the 

 rock formation of much of the interior of Central Liberia, of 

 the regions through which flow the Dukwia, Farmington, St. 

 John's, Cestos, and Sino Rivers, with here and there an outcrop 

 of red granite and hornblende. Cluartzite and conglomerate ^ are 

 found in parts of the Dukwia region. Saddle Hill is chiefly 

 quartz-rock (quartzite) on its surface. 



All these central regions of Liberia are rich in mica-schists^ 

 which are found in such large slabs that the laminae of mica 

 might almost be valuable enough for exportation. In the eastern 

 part of Liberia (county of Maryland near the west bank of the 

 Lower Cavalla) there is a good deal of corundum ^ (^alumina). 

 This formation has been inspected pretty closely by two 

 expeditions sent out by the Chartered Company, in the hope 

 that it might contain sapphires^ rubies^ and perhaps topazes ; but 

 nothing of this kind has yet been found, though the two 

 former stones are merely variants of corundum and the topaz 

 is also an aluminoid compound. 



In 1903 a Liberian official came to England to exhibit a 

 small diamond of ahout 10 carats which it was alleged had been 

 found in the county of Grand Basa, about twenty miles from 

 the coast. The land from which the diamond was said to have 

 been obtained was leased to a German syndicate, but so far as 

 present information goes, no trace of any geological formation 

 likely to contain diamonds has yet been met with in that region. 

 It is much more probable that the eastern parts of Liberia may 

 be found to contain sapphires, rubies, and such other precious 

 stones as are mere variants of corundum. 



Specimens of sand from the St. Paul's River consist mainly 



' Sometimes called " pudding-stone " : formed of consolidated gravel or 

 shingle. 



^ Corundum is an oxide of aluminium containing as much as 50 per cent, 

 of metal, but not used as an ore because of its great hardness, 



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