Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I
År: 1945
Serie: Engineering Wonders of the World
Sider: 448
UDK: 600 Eng -gl.
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56
ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD.
reached, but Europeans have since demon-
strated their ability to perform the work.
The section of the line that proved most
interesting to construct—as certainly it was
the most adventurous—was that immedi-
ately west of Nairobi. It was here that most
of the exciting experiences took place. The
country along this
portion of the
route literally
teems with big
game of every
description, espe-
cially lions. The
engineers in charge
of the working-
parties were kept
constantly on the
alert to prevent
the helpless coolies
being carried off
by the fierce man-
eating lions that
prowled about by
day and night seek-
ing their human
prey.
At Tsavo, some
130 miles from
Mombasa, lions
were first encoun-
tered, and here
was opened what
INDIAN COOLIES AT WORK.
proved to be a
long - drawn - out
war between railway builders and carnivorous
beasts. Hardly a night passed without one or
Adventures
with Lions.
two coolies being carried from
their tents and devoured in the
scrub bush a short distance
away. Even the usual precaution of carrying
a lantern when moving about from one camp
to another after dark proved no safeguard after
a time, and so bold did the brutes become that
they would spring on the men in broad day-
light. On one occasion a local magistrate was
in the construction camp inquiring into the
circumstances under which some coolies had
been killed and eaten by lions, when suddenly
a huge lioness pounced upon him and knocked
him down. She was successfully driven off
by those who heard his cries, but she carried
away in her power-
ful jaws one of his
native followers,
whose mangled re-
mains were found
the next morning
in the jungle about
a hundred yards
distant.
A short time
afterwards an In-
dian patient in one
of the hospital
camps was careless
enough to leave
his legs projecting
from his tent one
very hot night.
He paid dearly for
his rashness. A
lion seized him
by thø reet and
dragged ' him out
and through a
stout wooden
stockade that had
been erected round
the camp in the
hope of keeping the animals away. After
many other similarly tragic experiences, the
engineers in charge were compelled to re-
move their camp some thirty miles away from
the line to a district where, for some reason
or another, lions were but rarely seen. This
step was rendered necessary by the natives
being so completely panic-stricken at night
that they could scarcely be induced to com-
mence their work in the morning. Their appe-