from Benguela and Mossamedes with the ultimate purpose of connecting with the 'Cape to Cairo' road and joining with the lines from Portuguese East Africa, which also touch that road, thus making a transcontinental line from east to west, with Portuguese territory at either terminus. Farther south on the western coast the Germans have projected a road from Walfisch Bay to Windhoek, the capital of German Southwest Africa, and this will probably be extended eastwardly until it connects with the great transcontinental line from 'Cape to Cairo,' which is to form the great nerve center of the system, to be contributed to and supported by these branches connecting it with either coast. Another magnificent railway project, which was some years ago suggested by M. Leroy Beaulieu, has been recently revived, being no less than an east and west transcontinental line through the Sudan region, connecting the Senegal and Niger countries on the west with the Nile Valley and Red Sea on the east and penetrating a densely populated and extremely productive region of which less is now known, perhaps, than of any other part of Africa. At the north numerous lines skirt the Mediterranean coast, especially in the French territory of Algeria and in Tunis, where the length of railway is, in round numbers, 2,250 miles, while the Egyptian railroads are, including those now under construction, about 1,500 miles in length. {4} Those of Cape Colony and Natal are nearly 3,000 miles, and those of Portuguese East Africa and the South African Republic another thousand. Taking into consideration all of the roads now constructed, or under actual construction, their total length reaches nearly 10,000 miles, while there seems every reason to believe that the great through system connecting the rapidly developing mining regions of South Africa with the north of the continent and with Europe will soon be pushed to completion. A large proportion of the railways thus far constructed are owned by the several colonies or States which they traverse, about 2,000 miles of the Cape Colony system belonging to the Government, while nearly all that of Egypt is owned and operated by the State." _United States Bureau of Statistics, Monthly Summary, August, 1899._ See, also, (in this volume), RAILWAY, CAPE TO CAIRO. AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (June). International Convention respecting the liquor traffic.