Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

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-