The Greatest Length Of The Island Lies N.E. And S.W., And Amounts To
Thirty-Three Miles; The Mean Breadth Is Seventeen Miles.
The port,
Clarence Cove, now called Santa Isabel by the Spaniards - who have
been giving Spanish names to all the English-named places without
any one taking much notice of them - is a very remarkable place, and
except perhaps Gaboon the finest harbour on the West Coast.
The
point that brings Gaboon anchorage up in line with Clarence Cove is
its superior healthiness; for Clarence is a section of a circle, and
its shores are steep rocky cliffs from 100 to 200 feet high, and the
place, to put it very mildly, exceedingly hot and stuffy. The cove
is evidently a partly submerged crater, the submerged rim of the
crater is almost a perfect semi-circle seawards - having on it 4, 5,
7, 8, and 10 fathoms of water save almost in the centre of the arc
where there is a passage with 12 to 14 fathoms. Inside, in the
crater, there is deeper water, running in places from 30 to 45
fathoms, and outside the submerged rim there is deeper water again,
but rocky shoals abound. On the top of the shore cliffs stands the
dilapidated little town of Clarence, on a plateau that falls away
slightly towards the mountain for about a mile, when the ground
commences to rise into the slopes of the Cordillera. On the narrow
beach, tucked close against the cliffs, are a few stores belonging
to the merchants, where goods are placed on landing, and there is a
little pier too, but as it is usually having something done to its
head, or else is closed by the authorities because they intend doing
something by and by, the chances are against its being available for
use.
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