All Went Well Until It Got Out Into
Midstream, When Much To My Amusement It
Promptly Toppled Gracefully Over.
I helped my
friend to scramble quickly up the bank out of
reach of possible crocodiles, when, none the worse
for his ducking, he laughed as heartily as I at
the adventure.
Except for an occasional relaxation of this
sort, every moment of my time was fully occupied.
Superintending the various works and a hundred
other duties kept me busy all day long, while my
evenings were given up to settling disputes
among the coolies, hearing reports and complaints
from the various jemadars and workpeople, and
in studying the Swahili language. Preparations,
too, for the principal piece of work in the district
- the building of the railway bridge over the
Tsavo river - were going on apace. These
involved, much personal work on my part; cross
and oblique sections of the river had to be taken,
the rate of the current and the volume of water
at flood, mean, and low levels had to be found,
and all the necessary calculations made. These
having at length been completed, I marked out
the positions for the abutments and piers, and
the work of sinking their foundations was begun.
The two centre piers in particular caused a great
deal of trouble, as the river broke in several
times, and had to be dammed up and pumped dry
again before work could be resumed. Then we
found we had to sink much deeper than we
expected in order to reach a solid foundation
indeed, the sinking went on and on, until I
began to despair of finding one and was about
to resort to pile-driving, when at last, to my
relief, we struck solid rock on which the huge
foundation-stones could be laid with perfect
safety.
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