244 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



of wages and more employment, growing demand for 

 produce and general commercial stimulus. Look, for 

 example, to the United States of America, and see 

 what the Union Pacific Railroad has done there as 

 regards the country lying between New York and 

 San Francisco, to a great extent waste, tenantless and 

 valueless before it was constructed — now to be seen 

 studded with villages and towns, surrounded by miles 

 of land under cultivation. Railways, like human 

 beings, require wood and water, and, with reference to 

 the future of West Africa in connection with their 

 introduction, already thought of and weighed, advan- 

 tage of present advice against detimbering should 

 be taken. 



The French have in this matter also gone ahead of 

 us, for they have actually laid down a certain portion 

 of a railway road in the kingdom of Bondou, near the 

 upper Gambia, which is being ^worked, to the astonish- 

 ment and silent wonder of the natives. It has been, 

 described to me as a " ship that walks on land, and 

 that it is well armed." En passant I would say how 

 such a step must attract and divert trade — which I 

 fear is the case to our cost on the upper Gambia River. 

 With respect to their pushing and determination to 

 go ahead — to our loss in those parts, I fear, as regards 

 undermining our influence and trade — and on the 

 means adopted towards such an end, I would quote in 

 translation as follows from 'Notices Statistiques sur 

 les Colonies Frangaises, 1883': — 



