them."

They ascended a small rise in front of them, and presently saw some
natives working. They were hauling up wooden buckets from the mouths of
narrow shafts driven into the ground, and were depositing their contents
in a larger receptacle close at hand. At the river-bank Dick noticed a
number of troughs of native workmanship, and began to gather the method
adopted by the natives in their mining.

"It is all very primitive," said the agent, "and no doubt we do not
abstract all the gold from the soil. A large part gets washed away.
Still, considering our methods, we are doing well, and have already a
good store of pure metal. Look into one of the shafts. Yes, continue
to look till your eyes become accustomed to the darkness down there.
That is the man who is working in the tunnel. You can just see his
back. He will call out when his bucket is filled, and his friend up
here will haul it up. It is slow, but sure, and in time there is a
quantity at the top. If the man below comes to harder soil, his friend
goes down to the river and washes. If not, he hauls, and at the end of
the day the two wash the gold from the soil which they have gathered."

"But how on earth does the man get down?" asked Dick, for he could see
that the hauling tackle was too weak for such a task.

"That again is simplicity itself," was the reply. "You see that the
shaft is barely four feet across. The man carries a kind of narrow
spade with which he digs the ground. Well, he places that across the
top of the shaft, and lowers his feet till they come to a niche on one
wall. There it is. You can see it plainly. With his feet secure he
leans back till his shoulders are against the far side of the shaft--in
fact, till he is across the cutting in a slanting position. Then he
releases the digger and lowers it, placing it in a similar position
across the shaft. And so he descends, repeating the movement to the
bottom."

"Primitive, certainly," agreed Mr Pepson, "and I think it can be
improved upon. We have brought hand-winding gear with us, and they will
alter matters. The fellow below can lower himself, or get his friend to
do so for him. Then the labour of raising the soil will be lightened.
That reminds me. We have left our launch and the canoes at the
landing-stage. What steps can we take to get our goods here?"

"We will become porters to-morrow," was the answer. "These Ashanti
fellows are good tempered and willing if t