THE ECONOMIC CONQUEST OF AFRICA BY THE RAILROADS. 723 



transverse routes, the English, Gernuui, and Portuguese roads on the 

 coast of the Indian Ocean, together with the Belgian. English, and 

 Portuguese enterprises on the South Atlantic, constitute the begin- 

 nings, already well developed, of two or possibly three lines of direct 

 communication between the east and west coasts lying below the 

 equator. 



Finally, there are those French, English, and German railroads of 

 Western Africa, like those on the Ked Sea, entirely independent, and 

 built for the purpose of connecting with navigable rivers or opening 

 a means of exportation for the goods of some inland country. 

 Among the roads in operation and already more or less connected 

 which are now being organized in the principal colonies are three or 

 four proposed transcontinental lines — one from the Mediterranean 

 to the Cape, and the others from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. 

 The Avork on these is being pushed forward sinndtaneously from both 

 ends. Besides the great systems already spoken of, there are a num- 

 ber of isolated roads running from the coast sliort distances into the 

 interior. Entirely autonomou.s, each with its peculiar object, these 

 little roads are built as occasion demands, and are in several territories 

 already at Avork. Such, at the beginning of the twentieth century, is 

 t!ie situation in Africa with regard to railroads." 



The first railroads established in Algeria more than thirty-five 

 years ago — the Algiers-Oran and the Philleville-Oran routes — were 

 concessions to the Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee. Companies 

 exclusively Algerian were formed in 1875, and for the next sixteen or 

 seventeen years these companies constructed continually. But since 



a Below is a table which recapitulates for the year 190.3 the length, in miles, 

 of the railroads now in operation in the different regions of Africa : 



French colonies : Miles. 



Algeria 1, 822 



Tunis 580) 



West Africa 524 



Djibouti 184 



Reunion Isle 90 



3, 206 



Egypt : 



State roads 1. 305 



Private companies 712 



Military line in Sudan 776 



883 



English colonies : 



Cape Colony 2,122 



Natal 596 



Transvaal and Orange Free 



State 1.322 



Rhodesia 1, 143 



East Africa 582 



