LAST MISSION TO AFRICA. 
55 
amber, and two of beads, requesting his permission to go 
and look at the gold mines, which I understood were in 
the vicinity. Having obtained his permisson, I hired a 
woman to go with me, and agreed to pay her a bar of 
amber if she would shew me a grain of gold. We tra- 
velled about half a mile west of the town, when we came 
to a small meadow spot of about four or five acres extent, 
in which were several holes dug resembling wells. They 
were in general about ten or twelve feet deep ; towards the 
middle of the meadow spot the holes were deepest, and 
shallower towards the sides. Their number was about 
thirty, besides many old ones which had sunk down. Near 
the mouths of these pits were several other shallow pits, 
lined with clay, and full of rain water : between the mine 
pits and these wash pits laid several heaps of sandy gravel. 
On the top of each was a stone ; some of the stones white, 
others red, others black, &c. These serve to distinguish 
each person's property. I could see nothing peculiar in 
this gravel ; some silicious pebbles as large as a pigeon's 
egg, pieces of while and reddish quartz, iron stone, and 
killow, and a soft friable yellow stone, which crumbled to 
pieces by the fingers, were the chief minerals that I could 
distinguish. Besides the above there was a great portion 
of sand, and a yellow earth resembling tilt. 
The woman took about half a pound of gravel with one 
