THE SUAKIM-BERBER RAILWAY. 233 representatives were to be entitled to a gratuity equal to one year's pay. The agents were to receive a commission of two per cent upon all expenditure by the war department, such commission, however, not to exceed in the whole .20,000; and they were to be entitled to a further sum not exceeding ;£20,000 if the railways should be satisfactorily completed in the judgment of the secretary of state. There was a condition that the contract should not be sub-let.

The extent of the railway had been computed at 280 miles. In the face of an enemy nothing like an actual contract could have been entered into, and the position occupied by Messrs. Lucas and Aird was only that of agents of the government. The advance into the country and the plotting out of the course of the line were to be accomplished by the Royal Engineers and a military force under an officer of the highest rank. The country rises gradually from the sea-coast to Ariab, where a fortified post of some magnitude was likely to be established. As the military force advanced the agents' navvies, having under them hired native men of the district, would make the needful cuttings and clearances, and lay the line in a substantial manner at the rate of from twenty to twenty-five miles a week, if all went favourably and well. As the line was laid the constructors' locomotives were to traverse it, bringing up stores and materials. At this rate the entire line would occupy rather over fourteen weeks, or, taking into consideration very probable delays, it was expected that the railway from Suakim to Berber would occupy in its completion about four or five months, and that troops and stores would be passed over it in the autumn, or about July or August. The plant and materials for the construction were to be sent out by government transports in sections, each perfectly complete with sleepers, rails, points, and crossings. A couple of hundred picked navvies and platelayers were ready to sail. The route determined upon followed the sites of numerous wells, and it was decided to convey water to the line when possible by a system of pipes.

This, then, was the line which was not only to open the route to Berber, and so give us a military position that would, at all events, secure the protection of the Eastern Soudan, but would eventually open up the country to commerce and be instrumental in inaugurating a new era. Of course a large staff of engineers and clerks was required as well as the navvies and workmen, and the material necessary for a section of five miles included a locomotive, ballast trucks, a large number of broad and narrow trolleys, two of which were for the electric light, twelve watertanks, six steam-boilers, six pumps, some 14,000 feet of water-pipe of various sizes, 830 tons of rails, 15,000 sleepers, numbers of points and crossings, fifty tons of cement, deals, timbers, planks and boarding, a vast quantity of tools and apparatus, coal, clothing, furniture, detonating material, portable and other engines, besides three huts and a supply of