For Fire - Which Has Hitherto
Been Regarded As His Main Safeguard Against The
Carnivora - These Cared Nothing.
It is curious
that the Tsavo lions were not killed by poison,
for strychnine is easily used, and with effect.
(I may mention that poison was tried, but without effect.
The
poisoned carcases of transport animals which had died from the
bite of the tsetse fly were placed in likely spots, but the wily man-eaters
would not touch them, and much preferred live men to dead
donkeys.)
Poison may have been used early in the history
of man, for its powers are employed with strange
skill by the men in the tropical forest, both in
American and West Central Africa. But there
is no evidence that the old inhabitants of Europe,
or of Assyria or Asia Minor, ever killed lions or
wolves by this means. They looked to the King
or chief, or some champion, to kill these monsters
for them. It was not the sport but the duty of.
Kings, and was in itself a title to be a ruler of
men. Theseus, who cleared the roads of beasts
and robbers; Hercules, the lion killer; St.
George, the dragon-slayer, and all the rest of
their class owed to this their everlasting fame.
From the story of the Tsavo River we can
appreciate their services to man even at this
distance of time. When the jungle twinkled
with hundreds of lamps, as the shout went on
from camp to camp that the first lion was dead,
as the hurrying crowds fell prostrate in the
midnight forest, laying their heads on his feet,
and the Africans danced savage and ceremonial
dances of thanksgiving, Mr. Patterson must have
realised in no common way what it was to have
been a hero and deliverer in the days when
man was not yet undisputed lord of the creation,
and might pass at any moment under the savage
dominion of the beasts."
Well had the two man-eaters earned all this
fame; they had devoured between them no less
than twenty-eight Indian coolies, in addition to
scores of unfortunate African natives of whom
no official record was kept.
CHAPTER X
THE COMPLETION OF THE TSAVO BRIDGE
When all the excitement had died down
and there was no longer any dread of the
man-eaters, work went on briskly, and the bridge
over the Tsavo rapidly neared completion. As
the piers and abutments progressed in height,
the question of how to lift the large stones into
their positions had to be solved. We possessed
no cranes for this purpose, so I set to work
and improvised a shears made of a couple of
thirty-foot rails. These were bolted together at
the top, while the other ends were fixed at a
distance of about ten feet apart in a large block
of wood. This contrivance acted capitally, and
by manipulation of ropes and pulleys the heavy
stones were swung into position quickly and
without difficulty, so that in a very short time
the masonry of the bridge was completed.
The next business was to span the sixty-foot
distance between the piers with iron girders. As
I had neither winches nor sufficient blocks and
tackle to haul these over into position, I was
driven to erect temporary piers in the middle of
each span, built up crib-shape of wooden sleepers.
Great wooden beams were stretched across from
the stone piers to these cribs, and laid with
rails; and the girder was run over its exact
place, while still on the trucks in which it had
been brought up from the coast. It was next
"jacked" up from the trucks, which were hauled
away empty, the temporary bridge was
dismantled, and the girder finally lowered gently
into position. When the last girder was thus
successfully placed, no time was lost in linking up
the permanent way, and very soon I had the
satisfaction of seeing the first train cross the
finished work.
Curiously enough, only a day or so after the
bridge had been completed and the intermediate
cribs cleared away, a tremendous rain-storm
broke over the country. The river started to
rise rapidly, soon flooding its banks and becoming
a raging murky torrent, tearing up trees by the
roots and whirling them along like straws.
Steadily higher and higher rose the flood, and
standing on my bridge, I watched expectantly
for the two temporary trolley bridges - which, it
will be remembered, we had built across the
stream in order to bring stone and sand to the
main work - to give way before the ever-rising
volume of water. Nor had I long to wait; for
I soon caught sight of a solid mass of palm
stems and railway sleepers sweeping with almost
irresistible force round the bend of the river
some little distance above the bridge. This I
knew was the debris of the trolley crossing
furthest up the river. On it came, and with it
an additional bank of stormy-looking water. I
held my breath for the space of a moment as it
actually leaped at the second frail structure; there
was a dull thud and a rending and riving of
timbers, and then the flood rolled on towards me,
leaving not a vestige of the two bridges behind
it. The impact, indeed, was so great that the
rails were twisted round the broken tree-trunks
as if they had been so much ordinary wire. The
double tier of wreckage now swept forward,
and hurled itself with a sullen plunge against
the cutwaters of my stone piers. The shock was
great, but to my immense satisfaction the bridge
took it without a tremor, and I saw the remnant
of the temporary crossings swirl through the
great spans and quickly disappear on its journey
to the ocean. I confess that I witnessed the
whole occurrence with a thrill of pride.
We were never long without excitement of some
kind or another at Tsavo.
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