15 
Data are not forthcoming. The population of the Gold 
Coast cannot, it would seem, be got within the range of 
“practical statistics.” It will be ideal to state that most of 
the people, estimated in round numbers say at 400,000, live 
chiefly on fish, so that some conception can be formed of 
the considerable catch there must be annually to supply 
such a mass, as also the great unlimited interior markets 
beyond our jurisdiction. 
The Gold Coast Colony—prior to the following date 
made up of the Settlements on the Gold Coast and the 
Settlement of Lagos—comprises, according to Letters Patent 
of 22nd January, 1883, all places, settlements, and terri- 
tories belonging to Her Majesty the Queen in West Africa, 
between the 5th degree of W. longitude and the 5th degree 
of E. longitude. It must not be understood that the colony 
is one and undivided, for a-strip of coast and country com- 
monly known as the Dahomean sea-board and territory 
intervenes. 
The population of the Gold Coast has, as already stated, 
never yet got beyond an estimate. Lagos was, however, 
more favoured, for in 1881 the census effort there applied 
and gave its population as 75,270, inclusive of 117 whites 
and 68 mulattos, of whom 5,695 were returned as fishermen. 
In view of what I have explained, it will be very evident 
that it would simply be farcical to endeavour to foist on to 
you any estimate of catch or of cure; indeed, such par- 
ticulars are not arrived at even in England. But against 
whatever may be the consumption of locally-caught and 
preserved fish, it may be interesting to have, by way of 
comparison, the value of what has been imported of this 
article—which I give for four years :— 
