482 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY work into confusion by the absolute necessity which it created of providing, from an already short-handed staff, for the performance of the duties of the invalided. The climate of the Protectorate, as a whole, is found also to be much better than that of the valleys of the Niger and the Benu6, in which at first the only centres of British occupation were situated. The climate of Zaria is indeed so good as to be exhilarating to Europeans, who, during a portion of the year, can enjoy the pleasure of frosty nights, and as the territories approach the desert in the north they become generally more suitable for white occupation. Native towns are frequently insanitary, but it is believed that, with the exercise of due care in the selection of sites for white settlements, these may in the northern states be rendered perfectly healthy.

The position nevertheless is one which throws into relief the very great importance of the question of communications. There are at present telegraph lines between some of the more important centres, and it is hoped soon to connect them all with the administrative capital at Zungeru. It is even now possible, by a system of runners to Kano, to communicate by cable between the shores of Lake Chad and London in ten days. But there are as yet no railroads in the Protectorate, except about twenty-two miles, which have been constructed from a port on the Kaduna to communicate with Zungeru, and the distances to be traversed are very great. For the Residents of Bornu to reach their stations from the administrative capital at Zungeru, takes longer than it takes them to travel from London to Zungeru, and thus causes a very serious loss of official time in proceeding to and from their work. Between station and station, in the event of promotion from one part of the Protectorate to another, or if the need arises for two Residents to meet in order to discuss the affairs of their provinces, the same loss of time has to be reckoned with. Through the southern states the travelling roads were originally little more than tracks, and at the moment of the introduction of British Administration, the navi-