River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-06-23

lakes stretching from the Zambesi to the
Nile came to be known. AS Grogan
pointed out, on the one hand Lake Tan
ganyika is hemmed in by steep noun
tains offering well-nigh insurmountable
difficulties to railway construction,
while, on the other hand, the lake itself
offers magnificent waterway for 400
miles on the direct line between the Cape
and Cairo. 1t may be taken as granted,
therefore, that this part of the journey
will be made by water, and that passen-
gers will be carried by steamboat from
Kituta to Usambara, at the north end of
the lake. From here to Lake Kivu is
distance of 80 miles, Offering no serious
obstacle to a railway beyond rise in
level of 1000 feet. Lake Kivu is 60 miles
in length, and this sheet of water also is
surrounded by high and precipitous
mountains, SO that another break in the
line will have to be made and the water
way utilised.
From Lake Kivu to the Albert Edward
lake is another 60 miles, with further
rise of 1000 feet to the highest point on
the whole route. The country to the east
of Albert Edward lake is so fiat that Mr..
Grogan thinks it unnecessary to use this
fine stretch of water (75 miles long,, and
suggests carrying railway from Lake
Kivu, through rich, healthy and dense
ly populated country, past the Albert
Edward lake and down the Semliki val
ley to the southern shore of the Albert
Lake-a distance of about 220 miles.
The Semliki valley is in Congo territory,
but he maintains that this is the obvious
route for the railway, with no engineer
ing difficulty but drop of 500 feet be-
fore reaching the level of the Albert lake,
while the alternative route through
British territory would involve climb
of 1000 feet, and a sudden descent of
5000 feet. Once the Albert lake is reached
there is a navigable waterway right
away to the Mediterranean by way Of
the White Nile, save for a stretch be-
tween Dufile and Rejaf, where the river
is broken by about 100 miles of rapids,
which would have to be SPAWNED by an
other length of railway. An alterna-
tive route via Abyssinia offers itself,
the emperor. of Abyssinia, under the
frontier agreement of May, 1902, having
agreed to allow the construction of
railway through Abyssinian territory
from the Soudan to Uganda. However,
now that the dense tangled mass of vege-
tation known as "sudd," which obstruct-
ed the river between Fashoda and Lake
Albert, has been broken up, the Nile
route will probably be preferred to any
other. Since the commencement of this
year a regular service of steamers is
plying between Rejaf and Khartum, a
distance of 900 miles, and Khartum is
now connected with Cairo by railway,
except for the short stretch of the Nile
between Wady Halfa and Assuan.
Thus, as Mr.. Grogan points out, when
once the railway reaches the southern
end of Tanganyika, further construc-
ton of 40 miles of railway is all that
will be necessary to render steam COM
munication by combined rail and water
way between the Cape and Cairo an &C.
complished fact, and, be it noted, the
whole route will lie through territory
belonging to Great Britain or under Brit
ish influence, save for the short stretch
through the Congo Free State. When
these 40 miles Of railway are construct
ed Rhodes dream will have been realised
if not In its entirety, at least as far as
the object which he had in view, for tits
evident from what he wrote to Mr.. Grog-
an that it was not as through line"