THE WORLD'S WONDERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10140, 10 November 1910, Page 4

THE WORLD'S WONDERS.

Evidently the wonders of this old world of ours are not all exhausted yet. Of these the latest and not the least strange is the great soda lake, Magadi, in Central Africa, which has just been explored by Air Fred Shelford, the well-known engineer. The lake is likely to afford a new industry and new source of prosperity to the Uganda Protectorate, and it was in connection witli a projected railway from Uganda to the great soda reservoir that Mr Shelford made his journey to-that region. Lake Magadi, he says, is some ten miles long by two or three miles wide. It lies at an altitude of 3,000 feet above the sea, aiftl the mountains tower around it to the height of other three or five thousand feet. There is no luiman life in the region, but on and about the lake are immense flocks of flamingoes. The chief marvel, however, is the lake itself. At a distance it looked like an ordinary sheet of Mater of a reddish hue, but on approach the water was found to be only a few inches deep, and underneath lay a hard surface of soda "exactly like pink marble." The soda was bored and found to be of considerable depth, and it is likely to furnish a mine of wealth for many years to come. There are several drawbacks. The heat on the lake is terrific, and the region is seriously infested with lions, while the country to be traversed is exceedingly difficult, and entirely uninhabited and waterless; but Messrs M. Samuel and Co. have secured a concession from the Government for ninety-nine years, and the railway is to be at once proceeded with.