310 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



for with a made bullock waggon track one can 

 convey as much traffic as is required, whether this 

 is five waggons in the year or 500, and in the case 

 of a railway this factor is possibly even more 

 important. 



The initial expenditure of a railway is so enor- 

 mous that I do not think it can be justified in 

 Africa unless there is some present initial traffic 

 to develop. 



In America the surplus population of Europe 

 and the markets in the eastern states have made 

 railway development profitable on the whole, but 

 in Africa until pioneer work has been done, and 

 the prospects of colonisation and plantation are 

 sufficiently definite and settled to induce colonists 

 to go out in considerable numbers, it will be ruin- 

 ous to build a long railway line. 



The British taxpayer cannot justly be asked to 

 hand over £3,000,000 for a railway through a 

 country in which there is not one single planter, 

 nor any minerals, at least so far as we can tell at 

 present. 



On the other hand, in British Central Africa, it 

 is justifiable ; for there is a large daily increasing 

 population, many plantations, and, as I hope to 

 show later on, about 2,300 miles to be opened up 

 by steamers and railways, which latter do not 

 exceed, collectively, 410 miles in length. 



Let us, however, first see exactly the relative 

 advantages of bullock waggons and railways. 



