i8o THE MFUMBIRO VOLCANOES 



our northern and southern possessions in Africa, and 

 it would probably be through this district that the 

 Cape to Cairo railway would be best constructed. 

 Ardent Imperialists with land-grabbing instincts 

 would like to see it added to the British Empire, 

 but it is to be feared that such a scheme is beyond 

 the dreams of avarice. 



It is a very mountainous country, and is inhabited 

 by many savage and warlike tribes, the great majority 

 of whom have not yet been in any way brought into 

 subjection to European authority. The Belgian 

 position is at present only rendered possible by the 

 employment of a large armed force of about 3,000 

 native troops, who are stationed at different posts 

 throughout the district. With the exception of an 

 insignificant and diminishing quantity of ivory, the 

 district produces absolutely nothing, and the cost of 

 its occupation must be very considerable. In addition 

 to the large garrison, the administration numbers 

 some sixty or seventy Europeans, whose maintenance 

 in so remote a region is exceedingly costly. Only 

 a very small proportion of their stores enters the 

 country from the Uganda side; the great bulk comes 

 from the West Coast, and the transport of material to 

 some of the remote stations occupies as much as four 

 months. The unproductiveness of the country 

 would not warrant making a railway from the Congo 

 to the middle or northern part of the district, and it 

 is not quite easy to see why the State takes the 

 trouble to maintain its occupation of the Rusisi-Kivu, 



