Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-29


and railroads are being built into Ii. and II
has become accessible as never before. The
French have established large number of
military stations in II, and they have now
a camel police, which protects the caravan
tracks. 1 shall first go down into this
desert on the edge of Morocco, where the
dangers are now greatest, and later shall
visit the GASES there and those of the re-
gions farther east.
After L leave the Sahara 1 will describe
desert life in Tripoli. in the desert of I.bya,
and also in the great Arabian desert which
lies east of the Nile. In the GASES hope to
visit the date plantations. which furnish
the chief food of these arid regions and
to show how they are now being increased
by the new means of French irrigation.
The Sultan in North Africa.
Turkey still has some possessions in
! north Africa. although Egypt has been
gobbed up by the British. Tripoli is still
untouched, and 1t is the most Mohammedan
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 town of
the Arabian Nights. There are occasional
boats going there from Malta, and l shall
be able TO visit it. l am not sure that /
Will not be able to reach 1t from Tunis by
the coasting steamers which go along the
gulf of Gabes. visiting such little towns as
Seusse and Sfax. If L do this l shall be
able 10 explore kairouan. the holy city OF
"a
Mohammedans make pgrmages just as
they do TO Mecca and Medina in Arabia.
1t is impossible for strangers to enter
Mecca. but / understand that one can see
kairouan, and that without armed
guard.
L 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 projects involving mil
hons are under way, schools are being
established. new railroads are building and
Tor the first time since the days of the
PharaOhs. the Fcllaheen are having an
honest government and moderate taxation
The cotton lands are being rapidly in
creased and plantations are being set out
by an American capitalist far up the Nile
valley on the edge of Abyssnia. / expect
to visit these plantations and to tell all
about how cotton is raised by the Egyp-
tians. / understand that they have now
about million and half acres planted
TO that crop and that their cotton is better
than ours. The Nile valley should also
furnish some good points on irriga ton for
our western farmers and a study of the
SueZ canal in the light of our big ditch at
Panama will be interesting. This Egyptian
canal was built within few years. and it
has been profitable from the start For
ten years it has paid on the average more
than S16.0o0,OO0 annually in dividends and
as 1T is now too small to accommodate the
trafhc an additional canal will be built.
Letters From Nubia.
At this writing the extent of my travels
in Nubia cannot be outlined. I 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. 1t is not proba-
BILE that I may go on to Uganda and the
African lakes by way of the Nile, although
L may do So The region there is unhealthy
and the only possible way through it is on
foot. that it would necessitate MANY
weeks of hard travel I shall prOha fal |,
advantage of the boats on the White and
Blue Nile to visit the upper Soudan, and
will then return to Berber, 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 rail-
road through that region, and it was to
have been completed only last year.
The Cape to Cairo Railroad
Much of my travels in eastern Africa will
be along the route of the Cape to Cairo
railroad. I shall 60 over it's northern sec
ton from Cairo to Assouan and will be
again upon it from Wady Halfa to Khar-
toum. l will be that route while in
Uganda. and will travel over something like
fifteen hundred miles of the southern por-
ton of it in going from the Falls of the
Zambesi through Bulawayo to Cape Town
l have just received letters from London
saying that the road has been extended
northward from the Zambesi for n distance
L
shall be able to go by it to the very heart
of the widest parts of Central Africa 1t
Is now being pushed onward at the rate of
a mile day. and 1t will soon reach Lake
Tanganyika. That lake is four hundred
miles long and is deep all the way. It's up
per end is not a great distance from Lake
Victoria, and for time at least travellers
will go to Tanganyika and thence by
steamer up TO the end of that lake from
where another strip of road will connect
them with Lake Victoria. From Lake Vic
toria the first section of railroad will prob
ably be built only to Gondokora on the Nile.
a distance of a thousand miles or SO from
khartoum, where small steamers will con-
meet them with the railway system of
Egypt.
The Great African Lakes.
I expect to have some interesting letters
from the great fresh water lakes of eastern
Africa. These vie with our great lakes in
size and surpass them in beauty. They are
surrounded by mighty mountains. I shall
Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenia
on my way to Lake Victoria. Mount Kill
manjaro is 10000 feet high and is the tall
est of the African mountains. Lake Vic
toria is the largest of the African lakes. 1t
is said to be bigger than Lake Superior. 1t
lies about as far inland from the Indian
ocean Cleveland is distant from the At
lantic, and 1t is now accessible by a rail-
road which passes through land of big
game. One sees herds of zebras and
giraffes from the car windows, and in
stances have been known of lions coming
into the Pullman cars at night when the
train was sidetracked and yanking the pas
Sengers out of the lower berthS. Hippo
potamuses have also butted the trains along
the tracks with their noses, and the rhi-
A QUESTION
From Sketch