I Accordingly Started
At Daylight Next Morning In A Special Train With
Mr. Anderson, The Superintendent Of Works, And
Dr. McCulloch, The Principal Medical Officer;
And As The Country Was In Every Way New To Me,
I Found The Journey A Most Interesting One.
The island of Mombasa is separated from the
mainland by the Strait of Macupa, and the railway
crosses this
By a bridge about three-quarters of a
mile long, called the Salisbury Bridge, in honour of
the great Minister for Foreign Affairs under whose
direction the Uganda Railway scheme was undertaken.
For twenty miles after reaching the mainland,
our train wound steadily upwards through
beautifully wooded, park-like country, and on
looking back out of the carriage windows we
could every now and again obtain lovely views of
Mombasa and Kilindini, while beyond these the
Indian Ocean sparkled in the glorious sunshine as
far as the eye could see. The summit of the Rabai
Hills having been reached, we entered on the
expanse of the Taru Desert, a wilderness covered
with poor scrub and stunted trees, and carpeted in
the dry season with a layer of fine red dust. This
dust is of a most penetrating character, and finds its
way into everything in the carriage as the train
passes along. From here onward game is more or
less plentiful, but the animals are very difficult to
see owing to the thick undergrowth in which they
hide themselves. We managed, however, to catch
sight of a few from the carriage windows, and also
noticed some of the natives, the Wa Nyika, or
"children of the wilderness."
At Maungu, some eighty miles from the coast,
we came to the end of this "desert," but almost
the only difference to be noticed in the character
of the country was that the colour of the dust had
changed.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 13 of 247
Words from 3753 to 4061
of 68125
