68 [No. 99 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS (g) With a view to keeping the Katanga traffic to some extent within the Belgian frontiers, it is pro posed to connect the Katanga Railway with Luebo at the limit of navigation on the Lulua tributary of the Kasai river. Such a railway in its northern part would traverse one of the most heavily timbered forest regions in the Congo. A proposed extension of this line to Léopoldville would pass through some of the richest and most densely populated districts . A branch line would probably be built to Lusambo on the head navi gable waters of the Sankuru . The construction of this line would bring Matadi and seaboard shipping, within 1,700 miles of Elisabeth ville , but would increase the already severe strain upon the Congo Railway. The enormous population of the Kasai and Kwango districts is at present almost untouched by European influence, and the advent of the railway would open up extensive markets for European goods.

(h) It should be mentioned that the French con template tapping the resources of the Congo basin , a large portion of which is in French Congo, by means of a line from the Atlantic to Brazzaville on Stanley Pool. A finished section of this line, running from the Pool to the copper mines of Minduli, is already feeding the Congo Railway.

(i) The Portuguese also are pushing forward their Northern Angola Angola Railway from Loanda towards Luchiko in the upper Kasai region.

( j) The Western Rift Railway, connecting Lake Albert (altitude, 2,030 ft . ) with the north end of Lake Tanganyika. The route surveyed by the Belgians for this line passes through the Semliki valley, along the western shore of Lake Edward (altitude, 3,200 ft . ) and the western side of the rift, reaching its highest altitude (about 6,000 ft. ) by the Mfumbiro volcanoes, then along the western shore of Lake Kivu (altitude, +