20 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



conception of a parcel of insane conceivers, 

 should see for themselves what already has been 

 achieved, before they doubt what can be accom- 

 plished. Kafue at the time of my visit contained 

 a number of fever patients. That terrible scourge 

 of the country, blackwater, seemed to be very 

 common there. On the river were a number of 

 launches, and, as my companions were desirous 

 of purchasing a boat for navigating the Luangwa 

 River, which runs into the Zambesi at Feira, 

 we went down to the grass- and reed-clad banks, 

 and inspected the flotilla. 



The dents in the sides of one or two of the boats 

 told interesting stories of encounters with hippo- 

 potami, which are very plentiful in the Kafue 

 and Luangwa. 



It is a great pity that the Kafue is not navigable 

 right up to the mines of the "Western Copper 

 Group" — Sable Antelope, Silver King, Rhino, and 

 Hippo properties — as it would greatly facilitate 

 the opening up of these ventures, if it were. Still 

 the river is certain to play an important part 

 in the industrial history of the country. 



The railway rises from an altitude of 3,000 feet 

 to 4,000 feet between Kafue and Broken Hill, 

 and the trees to the north of the river are notably 

 taller and less bush-like than those to the south. 



At one of the little wayside gangers' houses, 

 which serve as stations, a man crawled on the train, 

 and gave us children in a strange land a glimpse 

 of what some of the North-Western pioneers 

 have to bear. He was not an old man, when you 

 came to look at him closely, by no means old, 

 but his form was so emaciated by fever that one 

 would at first sight have put him down to be 

 sixty-five or seventy. His skin was yellow, his 

 eyes wild with malaria, three fingers on one hand 



