Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-10-08
Climate OF the Soudan.


We published few days ago an in
teryiew with Sir Henry Green on the
subject of the employment OF Indian
sepoys in the Soudan. The following
remarks by Sir Henry upon climate in
tluences, which we had not space 20
print then, may be of interest now:
And what about the climate, Sir
HenryP" said our representative.
well, those who have been in Sende
are not likely to be scared by the Sou
dan. As | spent most of my life in
those baking deserts. can not share
the alarm expressed by many coneern-
ing the prospects of Summer in the
Soudan. In Scinde we have heat so
terrible that sometimes YOU NAV see
horses roll over with sunstroke in all
directions. but have very seldom seen
any European down with sunstroke.
The cause is the excessive dryneSs of
the heat. When the air is so dry YOU
perspire profusely, and the perspiration
saves your life. When the atmosphere
is damp, the perspiration is checked,
and after sunset men die like rotten
sheep of heat apoplexy. In the Persian
campaign we camped out from October
to October near Peshawur, one of the
hottest places you can find in all Asia,
and our sick was only two per cent;
while on board the ships in the roads
it was almost impossible to live. Dry
heat can be borne to almost any extent
with comparative impunity. | have
seen French regiments come in from
the desert with nothing on their heads
but kepis. under blazing sun which
would have decimated the ranks had
there been the least humidity in the at
mosphere.
''As regards the making of the rail-
way between Suakim and Berber,
that railway would probably have been
made long ago but for Lord Granville.
Everything was arranged; the Duke of
Teck was to be the Chairman; we had
very powerful and influential direct
crate. A financial house had agreed
to raise all the money that was needed,
the Egyptian Government was 10
guarantee per cent. the whole work
was completed on paper, when it was
suddenly brought to nothing by the 40
tipathy of the Pashas of Cairo to any
scheme which diverted the Soudan
traffic from the Nile to the Red Sea-
You have taken away half our trade
by making the canal, they said. aud
now you want to take away the rest by
your railway The scheme was stifled;
but one word from the Government
would have secured its execution. That
word Lord Granville emphatically re-
fused to say. The Soudan lay alto
gether beyond the sphere of our inter-
ests, they said. So the railway was
never commenced, with results which
you know only too we'll naturally
disbelieve the stories as to the necessity
for running through tubular tunnels on
account of the sand-storms and moving
sand hills. The sand-hills of the des-
ert do not march about like huge snow
balls sixty feet high. They drift in
Africa as they do in India, little at
time, and if the rails are kept swept
and the more exposed places protected
by a wall there need be no fear as to
the safety of the railway. In one place,
while making railway in Scinde, we
ran ninety miles without one drop of
water; and in all Scinde we have not
one singular tubular tunnel to protect
the track from being silted up. "-IaU
Mall Gazette.