The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-30

dan of Mohammedan lands. 1t is about
ten times as big as the state of New
York, and its capital is the chief center of
the caravan trade of the Libyan desert
and a town of the Arabian Nights. There
are occasional boats going there from
Malta and | shall be able to visit It,
am not sure that I will not be able to
reach it from Tunis by the eoasting
steamers which go along the gulf of
Gabes. visiting such little towns as Sousse
and Sfax. If | do this l shall be able
to explore kairouan, the holy city of
north Africa. This is a place to which the
Mohammadans make pilgrimage just as
they do TO Mecca and Medina in Ara
bia 1t is impossible for strangers to
enter Mecca, but I understand that one
can see Kairouan, and that without an
armed guard
Travels In Egypt.
I expect to find many new things in
the land of the Nile Egypt is now
under the control of the British and
the country is booming. Irrigation pro-
jects involving millions are under way
schools are being established, new rail-
roads are building and for the first time
since the days of the Pharaohs, the
Fellaheen are having an honest govern
ment and moderate taxation. The cotton
plantations are being set out by an Amer
| lean capitalist far up the Nile valley on
the edge of Abyssinia. | expect to visit
these plantations and to tell all about
how cotton is raised by the Egyptians
l understand that they have now about
a million and half acres planted to
that crop and that their cotton is bet
ter than ours. The Nile valley should
also furnish some good points on irrlga-
finn 70 nd
study of the Suez canal in the light of
our big ditch at Panama will be inter
esting. This Egyptian canal was built
within a few years. and it has been
profitable from the start For ten years
it has paid on the average more than
s16,0oo00O annually in dividends, and as
it is now too small to accommodate the
! traffic an additional canal will be built.
Letters From Nubia.
At this writing the extent of my travels
in Nubia cannot be outlined. l shall go up
the Nile by rail and steamboat to Khar-
toum and Omdurman. where the mahdi
reigned and may possibly make my way
thence on into Abyssina II is not proba-
BILE that | may go on to Uganda and the
African lakes by way of the Nile. al
Though | may do so. The region there is
unhealthy and the only possible way
through IL is on foot so that il would
necessitate many weeks of hard travel.
I shall probably take advantage of the
boats on IN White and Blue Nile to
visit the upper Soudan, and will then re-
! turn to Berbcr. near where the Black
Nile joins the Nile proper and from there
cross the Arabian desert to the Red sea.
The British have been building a railroad
through that region, and II was to have
been completed only last year.
Cape to Cairo Railroad.
Much Of my travels in eastern Africa
will be along the route of the cape to
Cairo railroad. / shall go over its north
ern section from Cairo to Assouan and will
be again upon 1t from Wady Halfa to
Khartoum. | will be on that route while
in Uganda. and will travel over some
think like 1900 miles of the southern por-
ton of in going from the Falls of the Fam
! best through Bulawayo to Cape Town.
] have just received letters from London
saying that the road has been extended
northward from the Zambesi for a dis
tance of about 800 miles, and that I shall