Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

196 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. AN INSPECTING PARTY PASSING THROUGH THE MAOONIE HILLS AT THE S.W. END OF LAKE NYASA. of the supply. The climate, too, proved to be very trying for whites and blacks alike, and over considerable portions of the route no water for drinking purposes was obtain- able. Owing to these and other drawbacks, such as the the poles and other material had Labour and Climatic Conditions. distance that to be transported, it was nearly four years before the section of the line from Kituta to Ujiji (or, to give it its recently adopted official spelling, Udjidji) was reached. Udjidji is one of the most important settlements in German East Africa, and stands at about the middle of the eastern shore of the lake. This point was reached in May 1903. Udjidji is an un- interesting little town, composed mainly of low wooden huts roofed with ugly corrugated iron. It claims, however, a niche in the history of Africa by reason of the fact that it was here that the late Sir H. M. Stanley met David Livingstone after his prolonged search in 1871. At this point construction work on the line has ceased for the time being, while the engin- eers in charge look around and decide upon the best route to follow for the comparatively short section of the line that is required to link it up with the Uganda and, subsequently, with the Soudanese system. When construction is resumed, it is proposed to take the line in a north- easterly direction from Udjidji through the northern portion of German East Africa to Bu- Route of the A.T.T. koba, a small town standing on the west coast of the great Victoria Nyanza, and thence