Evening star., 1901-10-10
RAILR0ADT Bull DING
Across Five Hundred Miles of
Jungle and Swamp.
THIRTY WORKMEt EATEN BY LIONS
Sufferings From Every Sort of
Insect and Pest.
AMONG UGANDA NATIVES
pecial Correspondence of The Evening Star

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
LONDON, September %. 1901.
Probably there is no other stretch of
country on earth that could produce so
many oddities in the way of queer men
and strange beasts as the 500 miles Of
jungle, wilderness, swamp and mountains
which the new Uganda railway, now near
ing completion, W II cross on it's way from
Mombasa, on the eastern coast of Africa,
to Port Florence, on the shore of Lake Vic
toria Nyanza.
Undoubtedly this line would have been
finished long ago If it had not been neces-
sary every once in while for the entire
engineering torce to drop work and go of
on lion hun, repel an attack on the part
of some savage native tribe or head off
invasion by elephants; likewise the service
on the completed part of the line would
now be more perfect were it not incumbent
upon the engineers to bring their trains to
halt every now and then and summon the
entire train force to drag a rhinoceros or
hfppopotamus off the track.
Building a railroad across Uganda would
fG nave been the biggest kind of job, even
II the natural difficulties of the country
most of 1t an utterly unknown region a
comparatively short time ago-had been the
only ones with which the constructors had
~ 6ioppiC- Ioi IT'S lOEeSlS ana JuISleS are
almost impenetrable, malaria stalks
abroad in its Swamps, the sides of many Of
the mountains which it has been necessary
to cross are almost perpendicular and in
some sections roaring torrents innumeraple
dispute the progress of the engineer.
But as if all OF this were not enough.
Uganda is also the native heath of the
tsetse fly, deadly enemy of beasts of bur
den, horse and OK alike, and also of the
''jigger," the no less Unsuitable insect tor
turer of man. The activity of the first
pest made it necessary to transport all
the materials used in building the first 30
miles of the line on the backs of native
carriers but the attacks of the ''jiggers''
upon these men were so fierce, especially on
the soles of their feet that hundreds of
the carriers were incapacitated, and many
of them were forced to have one or more
of their toes amputated.
In this part of the country, too, mile
after mile stretches away in which no
water is to be found, and all that was
used by the thousands of men employed in
laying the line had to be carried inland
from the coast and doled out in rations
AT different times fever ragged in the con-
struction camp, and once 80 per cent Of
the men were on the sick list; rivers sud
denly swollen by great rains, washed away
the track soon after it was laid; savage
tribes descended upon the laborers and had
to be driven off.
Men Slaughtered by Lions.
Probably, however, if it could have been
arranged, almost every member of the ex-
peditlon would have agreed to bear all
these hardships If they might have been
spared the visitations of lions. The king
of beasts played havoc with the builders
of the Uganda railway from the first, and
since the work was commenced over thirty
men have been killed by these animals, to
say nothing of those injured
Two lions in particular bagged many
victims that at one time the whole con-
struction force struck until the pair Of
man-eaters were killed off This task was
taken in hand by two of the engineers, who
had already become famed for their PROV
ess as lion-slayers. One of them
pecialy eager for the fray his favorite
servant having fallen victim to these
lions only few days before. The beast
had waylaid the servant and leaped on
him from behind. completely crushing the
bones of his right leg and gnawing and
worrying him SO tiercely that he died soon
afterWard.
A few days later one of the officials of
the East African protectorate and a SOL
der were walking along the line when
suddenly lion pounced on them from the
brush beside the track. The officer hastily
ducked and escaped with an ugly scratch,
but while he was making his escape the
beast killed the soldier outright. 1t was
after this that the two hunters vowed ven
geance. and. after lying in ambush for
several nights. they bagged both the
beasts.
official of the railroad was attacked by a
lion that entered the compartment in a
sidetracked railroad carriage where the
official was sleeping, and, in spite of his
cries and struggles, carried him off bodily
into the jungle and there devoured him.
few nights later while the excitement at
the station where this happened was at its
height, the cause of it returned, jumped
upon the roof of the station where the rail-
way hands were sleeping. and tried to get
In by tearing off the corrugated iron sheets
During the night his roars of baffied rage
could be heard only too plainly by the
scared inmates. and in the morning the
roof was wet with the blood from the ami
mails paws. Finding his efforts there fruit
less Leo had crouched for the rest of the
night close outside the station door, where
he occupied himself by gnawng into small
pieces the stations whole stock of red and
green signal flags.
Another Unpleasant PASSENGER
1t was only a short time ago that still
another lion, not satisfied with hunting
along the railroad boarded one of the
trains. The train in question had been held
up at the station overnight and soon after
the train hands were sent down to get if
ready to go on yells of unmistakable terror
were heard and several of the white men
hastily snatched their guns and started to
the rescue. They found the hands drawn
ui' in a little trembling crowd staring at
HldJeStlC lOOklHS non WHO sQuatted calmly
on the rear platform of one of the cars
and was growing ominously He was
quite prepared to tackle all comers guns
or no guns, but the white men fired quick
and true, and when he fell the picture
which was printed here was taken
1t was this line of railway too thar
one of the most awful adventures with a
lion that ever happened in Africa took
place. Five nattvei laborers had deserted
and taking their guns with them started
back toward the eoast.7 One night wbil,
sleeping under tree they were set ,,non