AN ABORTIVE START 25

Hurrah, then, for the Dakar St. Louis line ! Three

cheers for it, in spite of the delays and mistakes which were perhaps made when it was begun.

To say tliat it has every possible and desirable comfort would of course be false. In the hot season especially it

is one long martyrdom to the traveller, a foretaste of hell,

and the advice given to new-comers at Dakar still holds

good — "Take ice, plenty of ice, with you, you will find it

of double use, to freshen up your drinks by the way and to

put in a handkerchief on your head under your helmet.

With plenty of ice you may perhaps escape without getting

fever or being suffocated."

The trip by this line, which no European would care to take for pleasure, is really to the negroes a treat, who go by

the train as an amusement. The directors did not count

upon receipts from the blacks when they started the line,

especially after a train which ran off the -metals smashed up