THOMAS park's ACCOUNT OF ACCRA. 267 



of gold. The precious metal found in that country is 

 brought to market by the negroes, in quills of the ostrich 

 and vulture. This territory, it would appear, was known 

 to the ancients, who regarded Ethiopia as a country rich in 

 gold. Sulphur is said to occur in Darfur. 



4. Great Table-land of Africa. — Of the table-land itself 

 ■we know very little, — the geological details we are now to 

 lay before our readers being principally illustrative of the 

 mountain-ranges and acclivities that surround this elevated 

 plateau. 



Geology of the Coast from Sierra Leone to Cape Negro. 

 — We shall trace the geological phenomena from Sierra 

 Leone to Cape Negro. The hills around Sierra Leone are 

 of granite, or rather of a porphyritic granitic syenite, in 

 which tourmaline crystals occur.* We know nothing 

 whatever of the geology of the Grain Coast and Ivory 

 Coast of Guinea. The Gold Coast is so named from the 

 great trade in gold dust carried on there, which has given 

 rise to many European settlements. We are told that in 

 the interior there are mountains of granite, gneiss, and 

 quartz, and that the gold is collected from the alluvial sands 

 and clays formed from these rocks. Nothing particular is 

 known of the rocks or soils of the Slave Coast. 



Our young friend and pupil, Thomas Park, son of the 

 celebrated but unfortunate Mungo Park, possessing the 

 enthusiasm and courage of his father, determined on tra- 

 versing Africa, with the view of ascertaining the history of 

 his father's fate, at that time in some degree unknown, and 

 also of enlarging our knowledge of its natural history and 

 geography. He was landed by order of government at 

 Accra, on the west coast, in 5° N. The last letter we re- 

 ceived from this promising young traveller, — for shortly 

 after the commencement of his journey he perished, — was 

 as follows: — " Accra, 17 th September , 1827. — I intend to 

 set off to-morrow morning. I have been, as you know, 

 three months here, during which time I have b«ien princi- 

 pally busy with the study of the Ashantee language. Some 

 time ago I made an excursion of about fifty miles into the 

 interior, by way of experiment, and did not fail to look 

 wround me and notice the rocks and other natural produc- 



* Geol. Tr., vol.i., New Sencs, p. 418. 



