Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE UGANDA RAILWAY. 55 the language of those supervising them, “ far more bother than they were worth.” The difficulty was overcome ultimately by the importation from India of large numbers of coolies, who proved to be good workers, cheap, and quite proof against the somewhat trying climate. A proportion of these coolies had always been employed, and the success of this experiment was so pronounced that from that An Extra- ordinary Railway. starts on a wind-swept island in the azure Indian Ocean, and terminates by the wooded shores of the largest lake in Africa. As it goes forward it passes through jungle, swamp, and desert, up the sides of great mountains, and plunges ever and anon into the darkness of the primeval forest. During its course it meets with platelayers’ camp shifting railhead. time onwards Indians were employed almost exclusively in the work of building the line, only very few of the East African natives being retained, and these to perform none but the easiest tasks. At the first only four thousand coolies were brought from India, but afterwards there were as many as twenty thousand at work at once. In many respects the Uganda Railway is one of the most extraordinary lines ever built, and one cannot deal with its construction without a curious sense of fascination and admiration for the men who took the task in hand. It almost every variety of climate imaginable. At Mombasa the Swahili engine-driver hangs his red-fezzed head over the side of his blistered cab, gasping for a breath of fresh air. Later, when up around the settlement of Limoru in the frosty highlands, the same engine-driver is blowing with chattering teeth on his half-frozen fingers, and stamping his numbed feet to restore a little life to them. It was doubted at first if any but the tough Swahilis could drive the trains through the extraordinary changes of temperature that are encountered before Port Florence is finally