ON THE BEIRA RAILWAY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1511, 14 February 1901, Page 10

ON THE BEIRA RAILWAY

If the Siberian raik-f?y world for length, the Beira railway easily holds the record for nastiness. A very interesting account of the Portuguese line is contributed to the “Contemporary Review” for October by Mr L. Orman Cooper, who, if his account is not exaggerated, certainly must have had a tough constitution to survive and tell his experiences. The portion of Portuguese territory through which it lies is the plague-spot of the earth, “inhabited by every kind of beetle, bug, and insect which stings, buzzes, or smells.’’ It is the region of the tzetze fly, and almost uninhabitable by Europeans. The Beira Railway is unique as an engineering feat; —The sleepers axe laid! on piles to start- with. The line slithers through miles of thick, dank, unfathomable mud. Then it crawls up* steep hills, and intersects a forest in which lions, tigers, harte-beettes, etc., continually do cry. Its engines are fed with green wood. Its officials are mosc'y educated gentlemen “down on their luck.” In fact, it holds a unique, place in the annals of railway work. The railway runs through a fever district, and accidents are so common that the company employs a medical man entirely to look after its employes. His life is not a. pleasant one. He* is continually on the move. On© man is only able to look alter about 200 miles of the railway. Even along that small area seldom a. day passes but he has someone to mend up or physic. Sometimes he has to travel over 100 mileis on a nigger-propelled trolley in order to look up one sick case. Yet, at the same time, many die without attention. The fever on the Beira Railway is about the worst kind of fever to be met with anywhere. It never fails to attack the white man sooner or later. It is extremely stealthy in its onslaught, and nothing can be done to ward it off entirely. Windows shut at sunset, so as to prevent the dank, deadly mist which nightly arisen from the swamps, can do something. Attention to hygiene, and avoiding the long grass in springtime and after sunset, can do more. Abstention from alcoholic beverages can do most of all—at least, attention to the latter del tail very often prevents fatal effects.

The country through which the railway runs is infested with lions, who, in addition to their'other virtues, have a poisonous bite.

In spite of all its drawbacks, however, Mr Cooper thinks that the Beira route is the route of the future. The Capetown-Buluwayo line is so tremendous a length and so artificially created: that its charges for freight are< enormous. It will, however, become noted for its attractions.

The country through which the railby human ingenuity, and the enormous rainfall of the Eastern strip of land ealidd Mozambique territory will never be free from that. Mud, mud. mud. will over be vhe .prominent object of Beira. Crocodiles wifi still bask and enjoy existence wherever there is such slimy, black, oozy, alluvial deposit, and mangrove swamps must always afford hiding; ground for water-snakes, green-striped snakete, puff-adders, and boa-constrictors. Where there are snakes there must be corresponding destroyers; so that life on. the Beira Railway is never likely to be much sought after.