This incident impressed Sir Charles Metcalfe, and, after a chat with the English overseers, foremen and engineers surveying the placing of the 33-feet lengths of steel upon the ground, it was decided to make an experiment just to see what could be accomplished under an emergency with native labour. The black men were marshalled up for a full day’s work, and were urged to let themselves go, the desire of establishing a record being communicated to the more enterprising spirits. The natives love a contest, and they girdled into the work with astonishing zest. They did not seem to tire, and they spurned the heat. The result was that when the ten hours’ labour was completed for the day the steel had crept forward no less that 5¾ miles--a world’s record. Yet everything proceeded so smoothly that it appeared, from the stranger’s point of view, as if work were being carried out at the normal rate of a mile a day. This result, with native labour, was remarkable. The engineers in charge of the wonderful track-layer used in America point to the speed with which the metals can be laid with its aid. Yet it comes somewhat as a shock to their pride to learn that their best performances of 3 to 4½ miles a day can be exceeded by unskilled black men, with no tools whatever. From Kalomo the engineers pushed north-eastwards to Broken Hill, 280 miles beyond. In this stretch, however, another obstacle had to be overcome. This was the Kafue River, which is the most important tributary to the Zambesi River, and indeed forms one leg of this great waterway. The great width of the Kafue River, 1,300 feet, called for a lengthy bridge. Although the waters are shallow during the dry season, the average depth being 9 feet, in the wet season, however, the river rises to 17 feet or so. It is a comparatively sluggish waterway, the speed of the current being about 3 miles an hour. Mr. G. A. Hobson was responsible for the design of this bridge also, and he decided that a light structure, divided into 13 spans each of 100 feet, would meet the case. The actual construction was carried out by Mr. A. L. Lawley as supervising engineer on behalf of the railway-builders. The bridge is of the lattice girder type, the trains running through the bridge. The whole of the steel-work was prepared in England, shipped to Cape Town, and then transported 2000 miles up country by railway to a yard improvised on the river bank, where the ribs of steel were assembled to form the spans. In addition, a pontoon, likewise of steel, was sent up in pieces in a similar manner, assembled on the bank and launched. This pontoon was utilised to float the spans into position, and also to convey material across the river to enable the grade to be pushed ahead while the waterway was being spanned. The pontoon was pulled from bank to bank by means of an endless wire cable, driven by a steam engine.