Liberia ^ 



of ilmenite (titaniferous iron ore), with some magnetite^ zicron^ 

 garnet^ hornblende, and tourmaline, and in the rocks from the 

 same region there is magnetite and limonite. In sand from 

 Mount Barclay, twenty-two miles from Monrovia and within 

 six miles of the creeks leading to the Mesurado Lagoon, monazite 

 was present. (It is from this mineral that mantles are made 

 for incandescent gas-burners.) In this same district zinc ore 

 was present.^ Nearer the east bank of the St. Paul's River, a 

 sample of sand contained garnet and ochreous iron ore. Other 

 specimens were varieties of schist. From the Lower St. Paul's 

 River, however, come numerous specimens of specular magnetic 

 iron ore. From the same country, to the east of the Lower 

 St. Paul's, come copper pyrites and iron pyrites, and some of 

 the mineral specimens suggest the presence of cobalt. Magnetic 

 iron ore seems to be present throughout the greater part of 

 the coast regions of Liberia. Benjamin Anderson asserts that 

 the soil of the northern parts of Liberia is so full of iron that 

 traffic on the paths causes them to shine like steel ; but how far 

 this information is to be depended on the present writer cannot 

 decide. Specimens of nearly pure copper have once or twice 

 been brought by natives from some region of Western Liberia 

 to the Sierra Leone territory and also to Monrovia ; but the 

 place of origin of these samples has not yet been identified. 



Numerous quartz veins and outcroppings suggest that this 

 might be an auriferous country. Certainly the Mandingos of 

 the far interior seem to obtain gold from some local source, 

 but whether this is within the political limits of Liberia has not 

 yet been ascertained. The Liberian Development Company has 

 sent several expeditions into the interior to look for gold since 

 1900, with no very encouraging results. In 1903 Captain 

 Scarvell Cape tested the sands of two small streams emptying 



' As zinc-blende with quartz veins, or zinc-blende with calcite veins, 



5^8 



