CAIRO TO KISUMU the continent, and have completed our fifty-two hundred miles through the air.

Those who know best the conditions in Africa believe that the establishment of a regular air service along the Cape-to-Cairo route will be difficult. During the rainy season dense fogs are common, making flying uncertain and dangerous, while at times the smoke from forest fires causes great trouble. On account of the rapid evapora¬ tion, the storage of gasoline in the tropical belt is extremely difficult. Sudden changes in atmospheric conditions form another serious danger; but with the development of wire¬ less stations along the route, and the use of the radio tele¬ phone, aviators can be warned while in flight of the weather conditions ahead and shape their courses accord¬ ingly.

Meantime, that all-British line that Cecil Rhodes plan¬ ned comes nearer to completion each year.

In thinking of the famous Cape-to-Cairo route most people consider it as a continuous railway trip, or as an iron track spanning Africa from south to north. This it will perhaps never be. We shall go by steam from Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope, but almost one third of the way will be over navigable rivers and lakes. This was Rhodes’s idea, and it is also that of every practical engineer who has examined the country and its traffic possibilities.

The journey from Cairo to the Cape is now made by rail, boat, and ground transport. These overland gaps are the ones which will one day be filled with railways, but the water sections will remain as a part of the com¬ pleted route.

The railroad from Cairo has been extended two hundred and forty miles south from Khartum to Sennar, on the 164