Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/151

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142
A PILGRIMAGE

at about two cents per quart; sheep, not the woolly variety; goats, pigs, dogs, cats, turkeys, ducks, chickens, Guinea-hens, (also wild ones in abundance,) pigeons, etc. Of agricultural products there are cotton, palm-oil, and other oils; Indian-corn, which is now being exported; sweet potatoes, yams, cassava, rice; Guinea-corn, a good substitute for wheat; beans, several varieties; arrow-root, ginger, sugar-cane, ground-nuts; onions, as good as can be obtained any where; luscious pine-apples, delectable papaws, unrivalled oranges and bananas, not to mention the locust and other fine varieties of fruit.

Of minerals there is an abundance of the best build-ing granite. I have seen no limestone, but Lagos furnishes, as already observed, an unlimited supply from oyster-shells. Plenty of rich iron-ore, from which the natives extract their own iron.

Of timber there is plenty of the African oak or teak—roko, as the natives call it—which is the material commonly used for building. Of course there are other fine varieties of timber. Water is easily procured every where. In the dry season some find it convenient to procure it from wells only a few feet deep, say from three to twelve feet. The Ogun furnishes good water-power; there are also fine brooks