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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



resources, and who, by their frequent desertions, 

 continually delay his progress. It would be of 

 incalculable advantage, therefore, if the traveler 

 could find in the interior of the country the sup- 

 plies he requires, and if the starting-point, instead 

 of being at a point on the coast, as Bagoinoyo or 

 St. Paul de Loanda, were situated on the very 

 threshold of the unexplored regions which he de- 

 signs to visit, for instance at Nyangwe or at Ujiji. 

 These stations would constitute a sort of entrepots 

 where he might supply himself with everything 

 needed, and a place of refuge whither he might re- 

 tire in case of illness or reverse. The privations, 

 the sufferings of every kind that befell the Liv- 

 ingstones, the Nachtigals, the Grants, the Came- 

 rons, and which prevented them from following 

 up their discoveries, would henceforth be in a 

 great measure avoided by those who should walk 

 in their footsteps. The heads of these posts, 

 being men of scientific training, would soon be- 

 come acquainted with the resources of the coun- 

 try. They could serve as guides to explorers; 

 they could make known to Europe the proper 

 commodities to export, and could thus open new 

 routes to commerce. The handiwork of the 

 European artisans being performed under the 

 eyes of the natives, the latter would be thus ini- 

 tiated into the arts and the needs of civilized life, 

 and in this way a civilizing influence would be 

 gradually spread abroad. The Catholic mission 

 at Gondokoro held its own in the very heart of 

 Equatorial Africa, and changed its site only in 

 order to escape from the dreadful mortality caused 

 by fevers. Here is proof that stations of this 

 kind, though they possess no military character, 

 may be established, and may even prosper, in 

 these regions. 



Stations having been founded in the interior, 

 the facility of supplying them with provisions 

 will depend on their means of communication 

 with the coast. Hitherto everything has been 

 carried on the heads of the negroes — a system of 

 transport which occasions delays and difficulties 

 that can only be appreciated by those who have 

 read the narratives of Livingstone, Stanley, and 

 Cameron. An agent of the London Missionary 

 Society is now engaged in surveying a route for 

 ox-teams from the coast of Zanguebar to Lake 

 Tanganyika, and during the present spring an 

 expedition consisting of five or six members will 

 attempt to make the journey. To me it appears 

 that a much surer method of transportation would 

 be by means of elephants. The English brought 

 several elephants from India for use in their 

 Abyssinian war, and there these powerful animals 



rendered great services, despite the many deep 

 ravines that had to be crossed. In Equatorial 

 Africa the elephant would be, as it were, in his 

 native country, for the African species is abun- 

 dant there. He would find appropriate food, and 

 would have nothing to fear from the redoubtable 

 tsetse-fly. In this way goods could be carried 

 much more easily than on the backs of men, or 

 even by wagon. The elephant-train would be the 

 precursor of the railway, which will certainly be 

 constructed before the present century ends. 

 Colonel Grant even laid before the Geographical 

 Congress at Brussels the route of a line of tele- 

 graph extending from Khartoom, where the line 

 from Cairo terminates, to Delagoa Bay, to which 

 the line from the Cape already extends. 1 The 

 line would ascend the Nile, and follow the shores 

 of Lakes Victoria and Nyassa, and Colonel Grant, 

 who is familiar with the country, is certain that 

 it would meet with no insurmountable obstacle. 



But the question arises, " What is the use of all 

 these efforts ? Can Central Africa ever be effec- 

 tively won for civilization? Can the European 

 live in that climate ? and will the natives ever 

 submit to the regular toil which is the condition 

 of economic progress ? " In the first place, we 

 have still to explore in the centre of Africa a vast 

 region, altogether unknown, which is a blank in 

 our maps, and which comprises about 4,000,000 

 square kilometres, or more than seven times the 

 area of France. Its frontiers have been deter- 

 mined by the expeditions led by Barth, Rohlfs, 

 and Nachtigal, on the north ; Schweinfurth, 

 Baker, Gordon, Gessi, and Stanley, on the east ; 

 Cameron and Livingstone on the south ; and 

 Tuckey, Du Chaillu, Giissfeldt, and Compiegne, 

 on the west. One of the principal objects of the 

 Brussels Congress was to devise the means of 

 penetrating this terra incognita. But the whole 

 region of the great lakes has been already ex- 

 plored with sufficient care to enable us to form 

 some idea of the future reserved for efforts at 

 civilization. 



To reach the great lakes let us follow the 

 route now protected by Colonel Gordon, whom 

 the khedive the other day named Governor of the 

 Province of the Upper Nile, with residence at 

 Khartoom. Leaving that town behind and as- 

 cending the river, we quit the region of perpetual 

 drought and enter a region where the equatorial 

 rains cover the soil with the most luxuriant vege- 

 tation. Crocodiles and hippopotami abound in 



i " Remarks on a Proposed Line of Telegraph, overland, 

 from Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope." By K. Nicliolls, 

 Esq., E. Arnold, Esq , and Colonel Grant, C. B. 



