Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

156 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. required. Such departures have, however, been the exception rather than the rule. In this connection a story may be told of the late Sir William Harcourt, dating from the time when Mr. Rhodes and all his works were The Rails and the Chancellor. anathema to the late states- man. Sir William took pleas- ure in satirizing the “ Cape to Cairo ” Railway as a “ wild- cat ” scheme, “ lead- ing from nowhere to nowhere.” He hap- pened to be paying a visit to his con- stituents in the Ebbw Vale dis- trict, and was taken over one of the larg- est iron foundries in the district. They showed him steel rails being manu- factured literally by the thousand, and he asked presently what was their des- tination . “ Oh, these are for the ‘ Cape to Cairo ’ Railway, Sir William,” replied his guide, with a smile NATIVES AT WORK ON THE LINE. (By permission of Mr. A. L. Lawley.) provoked by his re- collection of the Chancellor’s recent attacks on the feasibility of the line. There were some stirring adventures in the early days of the construction of the railway through Rhodesia. It was often necessary to move loads of material long Stirring distances in front of railhead, Incidents. and bullock-wagons were usu- ally employed for this purpose. Experiments carried out with steam traction-engines proved unsuccessful, owing principally to the lack of water and suitable fuel in many districts. A man who had recently gone out to Rhodesia in charge of one of these engines found him- self stranded half-way between his starting- point and his destination by an empty boiler. “ Where is all the water ? ” he asked of the native guide as he gazed around him. “ Does it never rain in this country ? ” The guide grinned broadly. That night a terrific trop- ical thunderstorm broke over the party, beat- ing down their tents, soddening their food, and sinking the en- gine so deep in the mud that nearly a week was occupied in digging it out again. The driver thus speedily learnt the nature of a South African rain- storm. Exciting encoun- ters with lions and elephants have been very frequent along the line. There was a stand-up fight once between a lion and lioness and four native workmen armed only with crowbars and pick- axes. Though all the men were badly mauled, they managed to keep the brutes at bay until a party armed with rifles reached the spot and dispatched the two animals. On another Encounters • , with Lions. occasion a construction tram was puffing along with a heavy load of material near Gwelo when a full-grown lion was sighted stretched right across the line, and basking peacefully in the sun. In reply to the whistle of the engine, the brute looked up lazily, but did not attempt to move. The