MOMBASA TO NAIROBI . 
17 
CLIMBING THE DESERT OF TARU TO VOL 
From the Indian Ocean the Uganda railroad climbs steadily to the high 
northwestern plateaus at Nairobi; and more than one hundred and fifty miles 
beyond, where it reaches its extreme elevation of more than 8,300 feet above 
sea level. The train pulls out of Mombasa, glides past the large freight depots 
and docks at Kilindini, and in a few minutes is thundering over the seventeen 
hundred feet of iron bridge which spans the strait between the city and the 
mainland. 
The nine miles of road intervening from this point to Mazeras station 
takes the traveler through a country of cocoanut palms and mangoes and 
along the route are well-kept Indian plantations, neat Wayganika and Swahili 
cottages and villages, and other evidences of New Africa and the civilizing 
effects of the modern railroad. The entire narrow belt of country between the 
coast and Mazeras station, which marks the commencement of a desert 
country, is seen to be lined in every direction with little brown paths leading 
from the open places into the copse or jungle, or toward the palisades enclosing 
native huts, the larger collections of which are called, by courtesy, villages. 
TARU DESERT AND OLD CARAVAN ROUTE. 
From Mazeras to Voi, the distance is ninety-four miles, and as the native 
farms and villages of this pretty belt of country, interspersed with remnants 
of forest growth, are left behind the road enters the dreary waste known as 
the desert of Taru. It is true that patches of dry grass, or thorny growths, 
are scattered over its surface; but as Roosevelt and his fellow travelers viewed 
from the comfortable seats in the speeding train the old caravan road stretch¬ 
ing ahead for mile after mile over this juiceless and sandy plain, they were 
doubtless thankful that they were living in the new days. The desert is by no 
means destitute of animal life, herds of gazelles, packs of jackals, a prowling 
hyena, and an occasional leopard or lion, moving unconcernedly over its sur¬ 
face. But it by no means compares with the natural zoo which is offered 
further to the North. 
GLORIOUS MOUNT KILIMANJARO. 
At Voi, one hundred and three miles from Mombasa—about a third of the 
distance to Nairobi—the government has provided a comfortable bungalow 
for the accommodation of tourists who may wish to stop off and trek it, one 
