t on one side then the other,
as we cork-screw our way up. The line indeed is a marvel of engineering
construction, for a most difficult piece of country is traversed without
a single tunnel and with very few cuttings and embankments. The length
of the railway is, of course, very much greater than a straight line
would be between the same points, for it frequently countermarches
backwards and forwards up a hill side, and after a detour of perhaps a
quarter of a mile, comes back to the same place, but thirty or forty
feet higher up. The company which undertook the task of building the
line met with many difficulties, but finished it at a cost of L3,000,000
and many native lives. It was built between the years 1891 and 1897 and
the workmen were recruited from Senegal and the British Colonies of
Africa. Frequent stops are necessary for the engines to drink and gain
their second winds, for their work here is very arduous. After two or
three hours, however, a plateau is reached and the line runs for miles
through dense forests of palms, acacias and _parasol_ trees (native
Motumbi). The name exactly describes these trees, for the branches are
arranged like the ribs, and the leaves spread out and form the covering
of the sunshade.

Between the belts of forests the country is covered with coarse grass,
six or seven feet high, dotted here and there with palms. No vestige of
animal life is visible and only a few natives who are engaged on the
railway. These inhabit villages near at hand, formed of huts built of
reeds or bamboo and thatched with grass. The men wear a loin cloth only,
but the women are wrapped in a plain piece of richly coloured cloth
which reaches from the neck to the ankle leaving the arms and feet bare.
This is evidently a simple length of stuff some three or four feet wide
and, to the masculine eye at least, its method of support remains a
mystery, for no trace of button, hook or pin is apparent. Their faces
are of the negroid type with broad noses and thick lips and the figures
of the women approach the shape of an S reversed thus [backwards S] and
are similar to those which our American cousins have so largely
developed. The men are as a rule thin and tall with very long legs and
all appear to have only small arches to their feet. On the lower Congo
however, there are many foreigners and several other types are visible.
As far as one can judge by the railway cuttings, the soil on the plateau
is coarse sand an