THE ECONOMIC CONQUEST OF AFRICA BV THE RAILROADS. 727 



task of keeping in running- order seven different types of locomotives, 

 garnered by the military authorities in their haste to open the road. 



The weekly scliedule at present includes two express trains, ad- 

 miral)ly ecjuipped with parlor, buifet, and sleeping cars. Besides 

 these a mixed freight and passenger train starts daily from each end 

 of the line. The shipments to the south consist of military stores 

 and construction materials, while the northern freights are made up 

 of rubber, ivory, ostrich plumes, and grain. As the list indicates, 

 the tonnage is still of very modest dimensions, yet it is sufficient to 

 pay a good share of the expenses of operation. 



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FUJ. 4.— South Atricau .system. 



The extension to Take Albert of the northern section of the pro- 

 posed transcontinental road between Cairo and the Cape is postponed 

 for the present. Instead the English have decided to undertake the 

 construction of a road from the Xile to the Red Sea. The attempt 

 to join Berber and Suakin was abandoned in 1S81, after an immense 

 amount of money had been spent on some 20 miles of road; but the 

 project has been revived, and to-day work is being done on both ends 

 of a road between Suakin and Khartoum by way of Kassala. From 

 Kassala it is planned to run a great southern line through Abyssinia 

 to Lake Rudolph, and thus connect the Egyptian system with that 

 of eastern xlfrica. 



