306 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



In East Africa we are in a peculiarly bad 

 position ; for the Germans will not allow Wanyam- 

 wesi to settle in British East Africa, and not one 

 of the native races has been proved to yield even 

 fair carriers. Moreover, it is obvious that in the 

 Masai highlands, where a 25 days' march has to 

 be made without provisions, if a man's load is 65 

 pounds, and his own food for the 25 days comes 

 to 37 pounds, he can only convey the difference, 

 viz., 30 pounds. 



The carriage of goods on men's shoulders must 

 be soon, therefore, a matter of the past. 



We must, consequently, examine the question 

 from the very beginning. It is first quite certain 

 that no form of carriage can possibly compete with 

 water transport. It costs, roughly, 5s. 6d. a ton to 

 bring goods from America to London by sea, and 

 about 5s. 6d. a ton to send them by land 15 miles 

 to — e.g., Bushey. 



If this is the case in the dry, it is far more so in 

 the green. 



I find that the Universities Mission steamer on 

 Lake Nyassa can convey goods at probably less 

 than Jd. per ton mile. 



The reason of this difference is the fundamental 

 fact that no maintenance of a permanent way is 

 required, and that, unless for canals, no capital 

 is required to make a road in the first place. 



Moreover, animals get worn out or die, and have 

 to be replaced. To keep a locomotive in repair 



