30 WAGNER and TREVOR 



are, indeed, as ignorant, as regards recorded scientific information, 

 as we were at the end of the era of the great explorers thirty- 

 years ago. 



Exploration in the future will be directed to the intimate study 

 of such areas and, except in very special circumstances, it will 

 seldom be necessary for the explorer to journey more than 300 to 

 400 miles from his base on the railway. 



Transport none the less continues to be the most important factor 

 and will, therefore, be dealt with first in the following notes, in 

 which the writers have endeavoured, as far as possible, to avoid 

 ground already fully covered in standard handbooks of travel. 



2. TRANSPORT. 



Apart from railways, with which we are not here concerned, 

 there are seven methods of transportation now in vogue in the 

 part of Africa under review. They are enumerated in the table of 

 contents and will be separately treated. Each has its own appropriate 

 sphere and to reach his destination from the railhead, even when 

 travelling only a comparatively short distance, the explorer will 

 often have to have recourse to several of them. 



a. WAGONS AND HEAVY CARTS DRAWN BY OXEN, 

 DONKEYS OR MULES. 



The Ox-Wagon. The well-known heavy colonial wagon, drawn 

 by from six to twelve yoke of oxen, which has probably been the 

 most important single factor in the opening up of Southern Africa, 

 is still the favourite means of transit in those parts of the sub- 

 continent free from the dreaded tsetse-fly, though the spread of 

 East Coast Fever and other cattle diseases and the enforcement of 

 quarantine regulations have in recent years greatly reduced its 

 field of utility. Thus, in the Union and Southern Rhodesia the 

 main transport roads are liable to be closed at any moment by an 

 outbreak of fever somewhere or other in the country. Even so, the 

 ox-wagon finds very extensive employment in the territories named 

 and in Bechuanaland, South-West Africa, Angola, Portuguese East 

 Africa and the plateau regions of East Africa, as there can be no 

 question that, particularly when supplemented by a motor car or 

 saddle horses or preferably both it is infinitely the most 

 convenient and reliable means of transport ; the great advantage ot 

 oxen over other draught animals being that they feed themselves, 



