and taking the form of the longitudinal lines upon a globe. When they first arrive upon the sea-coast, they are very meagre, in consequence of the fatigue experienced by them in their long journey from the interior; but their constitutions being excellent, they are soon restored to their natural vigour and plumpness, by rest and plentiful diet. For a country, lying only five degrees north of the equator, which is the middle latitude of the Gold Coast at its southern boundary, its temperature may be considered moderate; the thermometer of Fahrenheit only averaging throughout the year, 78°, as registered by Governor Dalzel at Cape Coast Castle; and during the wet season, it often sinks to 73°, or 74°. The days are generally cloudy, owing to the prevailing south-west wind loading the atmosphere with moisture, and which gives it a haziness, when not otherwise clouded, that diminishes the intensity of the sun's rays, and renders them more supportable than in the West Indies, where the sun shines with a brilliance, and unobstructed splendour, seldom seen or felt in this part of Africa. The nights, nevertheless, during the dry season, are cloudless; and the moon and stars shine with unusual brightness in a clear, deep blue sky. When the sun first rises, and until it has attained an altitude of eight or nine degrees, it presents, about the periods of the equinoxes (when day-light and that luminary arrive almost simultaneously), a singular appearance; for its apparent dimensions are greatly increased by refraction, and it rises cold, dull, spiritless, and rayless, the appearance of the morning being at this time the extraordinary one of that of twilight with the sun above the horizon, caused by the earth's place on the ecliptic, and the peculiar state of the atmosphere. The wet season is of shorter duration than in many parts of Africa that I have visited, and the seasons are generally milder, and assume more favourable aspects; yet, notwithstanding, the climate is very obnoxious to the health of Europeans. The face of the country, from Appolonia to Accra, is undulating, and covered with shrubbery and timber of small growth, except in the vicinity of towns, where some patches of ground are cultivated with the hand hoe, and in which maize and yams are grown. The country, to the north of it, and of that extending from Appolonia to the westward as far as Piccaninny Bassam, is rich in gold, as the quantity annually exported, and in general circulation, proves; especially when we take into consideration the imperfect knowledge which the natives have in mining, and that their principal supply of gold is derived from the surface of the earth, and is that which is washed from it during the periodical rains, and which is afterwards collected on the banks of rivers and small streams, after their waters have subsided. The manner of obtaining or washing for gold, is as follows: a quantity of soil is collected near a stream, or at the sea-side, in which gold is known to be, a portion of which is put into a tolerable sized calabash, which is filled with water, and then mixed together; and while the soil is held in solution, a quick rotatory motion is given to the calabash, by which means the mixture is made to fly over its side, and the gold, by its specific gravity, sinks to the bottom. I have often watched women and children employed in this way, and thought their labour but ill requited, the quantity of gold obtained by each individual being inconsiderable: from each calabash of soil only a few very minute particles of this metal were procured. The soil, from which I saw it obtained, was siliceous, and very similar to that in which iron is cast, in England. There are some valuable dye woods, especially a bright yellow, like turmeric; and |