The Uganda Railway headquarters is located at Nairobi. Some of the locomotives used on this road are of American manufacture, easily distinguishable from English-built engines, for American-built locomotives are the only ones which carry a bell. The locomotive engineers are nearly all Indians. The Uganda Railway is a paying concern, for dividends of 33 per cent. are declared nearly every year. Passenger fare is reasonable, but freight charges are said to be very high. It cost $50,000 a mile to build the Uganda Railway, which is 584 miles in length.
The various native tribes have peculiar marks by which they are distinguished. One tribe may have a certain tooth missing; another the end of their teeth filed to a sharp point; still another may have their teeth nicked, like a saw, done with a stone; or by other marks, easily distinguished.
Horse racing, football, cricket, and other English sports are indulged in. Saturday afternoon is devoted to recreation, as the Saturday half-holiday is observed. Government employees form a considerable proportion of the population.
CHAPTER IV
Nairobi was as far as we intended going when leaving the ship at Mombasa, but, finding the country so new and interesting, with traveling and living expenses reasonable, we decided to press on to the shores of Victoria Nyanza. From Nairobi going westward we rose to an elevation of 7,000 feet. Among the limbs of the trees, while traveling over that part of the railway line, can be seen crude, small barrels made of pieces of wood; these have been put in the trees by natives to intercept itinerant swarms of bees. The stations and surroundings were literally covered with blacks—natives and Indians. With the Mkikuyu woman, in her greased goatskin and plugged ear lobes, and some of the men covered with the greasy, red clay from head to foot, with hair fixed to resemble the turtle; with the Indian wearing his cloth headgear, and the Indian woman with her ankle and wrist bangles; with no Europeans in sight save as passengers—British-East Africa to-day offers more of interest, more for native study, than even interesting South Africa.
At Escarpment a splendid view was afforded, for the railway descends from a high point down the steep mountainside into what is known as the Great Meridional Rift, or Rift Valley, a depression in the earth that is said to extend to Egypt. As the train travels down a woody mountain, to the left and in front is the Rift Valley and Lake Naivasha. Traveling along we come to another game preserve, where gazelles, hartebeestes, wildebeestes, ostriches and zebras are grazing upon and scampering over the great valley, unaware of the pleasure their presence affords passengers while traveling through that stretch of country.
No evidence of habitation is seen from the railway, yet people get off at stations—only stations—and often persons are seen waiting at those lonesome spots in that wild land for the train to take them beyond. The same took place when coming up the coast—passengers got off and others got on the ship, though no white settlements were in sight. It is marvelous how white people settle in such untrodden sections in which to make a living, surrounded as they are on every side by the wildest and most uncertain phases of life.
Strange-looking berries were served at an eating station, and on inquiry as to the nature of the fruit, we were informed that an American had crossed two bushes—a strawberry and a raspberry—and the result, half-strawberry and half-raspberry, growing in that far-off land, we were now sampling.
We passed through Masailand, a native preserve, occupied by what was formerly a troublesome tribe. They live on the plains, and are said to own a quarter of a million head of cattle. Passing through attractive mountainous country, from Mau Summit, over 8,000 feet above sea level, we descended to Kavirondo Valley, a flat country.