RAILROADING TERRA INCOGNITA.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1890, 27 October 1913, Page 10

RAILROADING TERRA INCOGNITA.

s DRAMATIC DISCOVERY IN NIGERIA. The chance discovery of Tort Harcourt, which is to be the coast terminus of tho new trunk lino in Federated Nigeria (referred to in a recent cablegram), by Lieutenant Hughes, R.N.R., tiie 'commander of the Government yacht Ivy, gives a touch of romanco not always associated with railway construction (relates the "Daily News"). Tho fact, too, that the projected railway will cut through the very heart of the mysterious and almost unknown centres of the strongest forms of juju and fetish worship should provide incidents not less exciting than tlioso which attended tho building of tho' Uganda Railway. - • For years past attention has been' directed to the necessity for opening up a part of Africa which is not only tho most thickly populated region on .tho continent, but also includes'tho richest palm-oil belt in the world, and after, tho discovery of a coalfield at Udi extending for over a thousand squire . miles, and yielding coal showing '75 per cent, of tho value of the best Welsh coal, the question of a railway became more pressing. The great difficulty has always been that the shallow mangrove swamps have made the construction of railways and wharves impossible. Crsek Fifty Feet Deep. Rcceutly Lieutenant Hughes found a hitherto uncharted creek which, to the surprise ,if himself and tho party with him, showed a depth of 60ft, of ivator alongside a precipitous cliff 45ft. high, . i condition of things ui'kiwwn any- , ivhere between Sierra Leone and the Dongo. On- this discovery being re- < ported, says Renter, the Governor, ill i March last, commissioned tho .Director jf Railways and tho Director of Marino : to investigate the matter, and as a remit, it was.established 1 that the newly- | liscovered creok, though not shown on ■ my map, is really the main channel of | ;he Bonny River. ' i Though close to centres of river trnf- I ic, it had nevsr been visited except pos- ] iibly by a stray launch, and the canlib'al people who paddled out in their i :anoes were greatly surprised at the j irescnce of the Government yacht as < t slowly steamed up tho waterway, pre- i •eded by a motorrlaunch' taking sound- < ngs. The results' were in the highest < iegrcs for, on • rounding a < mild in ths creek, a remarkable series' < f cliffs exteiding for of < . niilo and averaging 45ft; above Jiigh ! rater : was discovered among tho tramps: Opposite these cliffs, sound- 1 tigs showed a depth of 70ft. of water. I Rope .Climb Up Cltfls. „ Armed with machetes, the Director x f Railways, the Director of Marino, 1 tril the co.nniander of the Ivy land- c d, and by means of a rope ascended tho 1 lilt's, and cut through a section of al- r lost impenetrable growth twelve feet- I i height. Lieutenant Hughes then.as- f sillied a tree to view tile country, A li jw people wero met, and* it was dis- f jverwl' that no white man had been r sere before. , s Further investigation showed that the n enoral conditions of tho placo were t iicli as had never been hoped for on f 10 West African coast, and tho spot e as been called Port Harcourt and seictel as tlio terminus of tho railway, [ere a town with wharves, residential, j) nd trading sites, railway, shops, otc., -]S ill bo constructed to meet the require- si icnts of what' will bo tho coal distri- «; uting centre for tho whole of West o frica. Not far distant, is the homo of «' ic notorious-Long Juju of Arochukiil, ' The wholo lino, which will bo 550 0 liles in length of the .standard African inge, is estimated to cost £3,000,000, I id to occupy four Or five years iii conduction. ' ■ ' -