When Up The Volta It May Be Said, "It
Would Be Nowhere When Any One Wanted It," But The Cast-
Iron idea
that goods must go ashore at places where there are Government
headquarters like Accra and Cape Coast, places
Where the surf is
about at its worst, seems to me an erroneous one. The landing place
at Cape Coast might be made safe and easy by the expenditure of a
few thousands in "developing" that rock which at present gives
shelter WHEN you get round the lee side of it, but this would only
make things safer for surf-boats. No other craft could work this
bit of beach; and there is plenty of room for developing the Volta,
as it is a waterway which a vessel drawing six feet can ascend fifty
miles from July till November, and thirty miles during the rest of
the year. The worst point about the Volta is the badness of its
bar - a great semicircular sweep with heavy breakers - too bad a bar
for boats to cross; but a steamer on the Lagos bar boat plan might
manage it, as the Bull Frog reported in 1884 nineteen to twenty-one
feet on it, one hour before high water. The absence of this bar
boat, and the impossibility of sending goods out in surf-boats
across the bar, causes the goods from Adda (Riverside), the chief
town on the Volta, situated about six miles up the river from its
mouth, to be carried across the spit of land to Beach Town, and then
brought out through the shore surf - the worst bit of surf on the
whole Gold Coast.
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