Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-12-19
Z, ~ WASHINGTON, D. G., Dec. Is,
NM I Uncle sam should keep his
Nv eye skinned as to the de-


velopment going on in West
africa !. That part of the world is prac-
.,oally unknown to us, and still its
wade is growing like q green bay tree.
n, along the cost, from Seneganibia
=. German Southwest Africa, railroads
are bnilding, experimental plantations
ara being set out. and here and there
mines of various kinds have been dis
covered. Away down near the cape.
u tbe German possessions, there is q
mace called Otavi, where valuable de-
nosIts of copper are now being mined.
rhc ore, III sight Is said to be 100000
IONS and 1t Is claimed that IT can be
PRODUCED SO us to net $4,000 600 clear
profit. Portuguese West Africa mas cop-
Nor iron, petroleum and salt, and 1sS
oils and asphalt fields are. now being
worked by Il British syndicate. ! have
oncudy written of the Great katallea
concession, which King Leopold of Bel
clum is working in connection with thu
English OH the watershed between the
Znmbcsi and the Kongo. This is to be
reached by railroad loo miles long
through Portuguese West Africa TO tn
Kongo Free State. 1t will open up
larger copper deposits than any ever
dscovered, and will flood the world
with that metal and with tin. The tin
mines run through a range of hills 100
miles long, and the copper noun
tnins are something like 800 miles in
length. An extension of the Cape to.
Cairo road has just been projected to
this great mining region, and within
a short time 1t will probably be a bee
hive OF industry.
There arc valuable minerals in the
northern part of the Kongo Free state,
and the French 1Songo contains gold.
copper and iron. Gold has been re-
Gently found in the ISamcrun, belong
ing to the Germans, which lies just
10 the north; and d little beyond that
Is the famous Gold Coast, on the Gulf
of Guinea, from which the English got
the name Of their SIS gold pieces. Tho
mines there have been worked for gen
erations, and they are still turning out
considerable. The output Is now some-
thing Hike S4.0O0,0OO q year, which is
40 times the product of 1901 In 1906
217,000 ounces of gold We're taken out,
and there has been a steady increase
In the product for moro than five years
AT present both quartz and placer min
ing is going on, and large crushing
mills have been installed.
WEST AFRICA's NEW RAILROADS.
AS to the railroad development, it
embraces the whole coast Of the con-
t!nent. The Germans have several
large projects under way in southwest
Africa. They have already built a line
p37 miles long from SWaiopmund. their
port, near Walflsh bay, to Great Wind
hook, the capital; and they have made
arrangements for q railroad 500 miles
long to go from Swakopmund to Otdvi
and the copper mines. This road will
probably some day be connected with
the Cape: to Cairo line running north
ward from Cape Town to the Zambesl;
and, in that case it will shorten tho
distance between England and Bula-
wayo by 1900 miles.
The Lobito Bay railroad has already
been constructed for a hundred miles
or so inland from the Atlantic; and
there are now several thousand labor
ers working upon it. This road will
be over 1000 miles long and it will
be made after the usual South African
fashion It's gage is three feet six inch
es, and the rails weigh 65 pounds to
the yard. The ties are to be Of steel,
on account Of the white ants, which
eat everything wooden; they will weigh
70 pounds each. All the bridges are
standardized, and the rolling stock Is
The same as that used In Rhodesia
Some Of the engines are being built in
England, but the heaviest ones are to