The Cape to Cairo Railway
ONE of the greatest achievements of human industry and energy will be realized at the completion of the “Cape to Cairo” Railway, spanning the great continent of Africa north and south. Regarding the progress of this great project we find these facts stated in a Chicago daily:— Already trains are running from Cape Town to Buluwayo, fifteen hundred miles; and now that the South African war is over, work upon the extension from the latter point will progress more rapidly. The route will deflect to the west from Buluwayo to reach some rich coal beds, and will cross the Zambezi at Victoria Falls, which were not so long ago one of Dr. Livingstone’s well-nigh inaccessible wonders. It was originally intended that the road should pass north through the German east African possessions, according to the arrangements made by the late Cecil Rhodes with the German emperor, who also contemplated the rail connection of Uganda with the Sudan. These projects have been abandoned, as under a Belgian agreement made last April the road will pass through the rich Congo Free State to the upper waters of the Nile. The stretches yet to be covered are Buluwayo to Victoria Falls, three hundred miles; Victoria Falls to Lake Kassali, seven hundred miles; from Stanley Falls on the Congo a railroad will be built to Mahagi on the Albert Nyanza, four hundred and eighty miles, which will supply the missing link between the Cape and the Egyptian railway.