728 THE ECONOMIC CONQUEST OF AFRICA BY THE RAILROADS. 



The counterpart of the continuous semicircle of railroads from the 

 Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, which is still in a state of pro- 

 jection above the equator, exists as a fact in the southern part of the 

 continent, for, on October 6, 1002, at a point 600 miles from the east- 

 ern coast and 1,365 miles from the Cape, was made the junction be- 

 tween the lines running westward from Beira by way of Salisbury 

 and those running northward from Cape Town b}' Bulawayo. 



During the last twelve years the South African railroad system 

 has grown with astonishing rapidity. When the chartered company 

 was founded, in 1889, the road from the Cape went only to Kimber- 

 ley and that from Beira was not even thought of. To-day, after a 

 period of feverish activity to which not even the Anglo-Boer war 

 could put an end, the number of miles of railroad in the vicinity of 

 the Cape is nothing short of marvelous." 



In Rhodesia especially, under the resistless energy of Cecil Rhodes, 

 the railway has taken a great leap forward. The Cape Colony 

 road comes to an end at Vryburg; beyond that point the construc- 

 tion of the southern section of the Cairo transcontinental line is 

 assumed by the Chartered Company, which steadily continues its 

 progress toward the north. Bulaw^a}'© was passed some time since ; 

 Wankies, with its coal fields, has just been reached. To the 200 

 miles just completed will soon be added the 72 which lie between 

 Wankies and the Zambesi. A bridge, nearly 700 feet long, across 

 the river just below the celebrated Victoria Falls, will enable the 

 locomotive to reach the copper mines recently discovered in Rhodesia. 

 Ascending to an altitude of 5,000 feet, the road will proceed toward 

 Lake Cheroma. On the salubrious plateau in which the lake is 

 situated the company proposes to establish one of its princijial 

 transcontinental stations, which, it is expected, will prove very 

 important from a sanitary viewpoint. The proposed line then 

 descends to the level of Lake Tanganyika and terminates at Abercorn, 

 on the southern extremity of the lake. 



It will then remain only to cross the Belgian and German territory 

 which lies between Tanganyika and Victoria Nyanza, the final sec- 



