Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/191

MINERALS OF SENEGAL— GOLD-MININO. 163 but being too extensive they have been but partially cultivated, and all such lands allowed to lie fallow for a certain period revert to the original owners. A great dithculty is found in keeping up the stock of animals. The horse, ass, camel, and pack-ox of the Sahara soon yield to the climate, and although the mule is hardier he is also very costly. The sheep thrives, changing, however, its wool for a silky coat ; and in the interior there are several breeds of domestic animals, such as the Khassonke " scrub oxen," which have become perfectly acclimatised, and which in some places even run half wild in the forests. Mineral Resources. Senegal abounds in minerals, such as gold, silver, mercury, copper, and iron. From time immemorial the natives of Bondu and Bambuk have washed tlie quartzose sands of the Faleme and its affluents for gold, and the Bambuk mines themselves were perhaps worked by the Portuguese so early as the beginning of the fifteenth century. According to the tradition they were all massacred by the natives, and there are certainly indications that in early times immigrants from Iberia penetrated into these regions. At the beginning of the eighteenth centurv Andre Brlie erected the two forts of St. Joseph on the Senegal and St. Peter on the Faleme, and sent Compagnon in quest of the gold mines. This traveller traversed the whole of the Bambuk mineral district, ascended the valley of the Sanu-Khole, or " River of Grold," to the Tambaura Mountains, and brought back some verj^ rich specimens of auriferous clays. Since then the country has been frequently visited, but no direct attempts were made by the French Government to work the mines till 1858. Even these experiments, which yielded somewhat more than £4,000, were brought to an end by the extreme insalubrity of the climate, and the more recent efforts of private companies have met with no better success, leaving the working of the mines and washing of the sands entirely in the hands of the natives. The mineral deposits of the Bure district, on one of the head streams of the Bakhoy, appear to be more productive than those of the Bambuk, yielding to the natives a yearly profit of £8,000. But iron is probably the metal destined to become the chief resource of the Upper Senegal, where the ores cover vast tracts and yield an average proportion of from one-half to two-thirds of pure metal. It is already smelted in furnaces of primitive structure, and in many places the natives also utilise the masses of meteoric iron. The Senegalese smiths manufacture iron daggers, spears, and agricultural implements. The jewellers display considerable skill in the production of delicate filigree work, and the native weavers supply considerable quantities of cotton fabrics for the local consumption. But with the exception of a few fancy articles, no manufactured goods are prepared for the foreign market. Social and Political State. Domestic slavery is a universal institution, the so-called "house captives "being considered as secondary members of the family, and treated in every respect like 74— AF