TRANSPORT. 307 



is probably not much less expensive than to keep 

 a boat's engines in order, while the cost of making 

 and maintaining barges is far less than that of 

 trucks and carriages. 



There is, therefore, no doubt that water trans- 

 port must, wherever possible, replace any other 

 kind of conveyance. 



This is a matter of the greatest importance in 

 Africa ; for, by a curious provision of nature, there 

 is no continent which has so many lakes and 

 navigable rivers. 



We have only to take the Victoria Nyanza to 

 see the point of this argument. It has a coast- 

 line of perhaps 700 miles, roughly, and a single 

 steamer costing to place on the lake £12,677 

 (according to the curiously definite figures of the 

 Mombasa railway report) would be able to visit 

 the whole of its shore. Taking the cost of main- 

 tenance, fuel, and working expenses as £1,200 

 a year (a very large estimate), a capital expenditure 

 of £53,000 (£13,000 for steamer, £40,000 to yield 

 3 per cent, interest) would enable this steamer to 

 convey, say, 30 tons at the rate of 5 to 10 miles 

 an hour for £1,600 a year. This makes it nearly 

 possible to convey a ton at the rate of a halfpenny 

 a mile ! 



While it would require about £53,000 to build 

 a railway only 18 miles long, the same ex- 

 penditure would enable a steamer to visit 700 

 miles of coast, not including islands and creeks, 



