De Witte. he was received with enthusiastic cheers. I Cheers for was among the dense crowd that gathered around him, eager to learn the conditions Japan had given. "It is peace," he said, "peace!" "And the terms, Excellency?" "Japan accepts our ultimatum. We pay not a sou." the Later in the afternoon the Japanese envoys returned to the hotel. There was the same crowd, the same enthusiastic cheering. Be-Cheers for fore, it was the man who was applauded, this Japanese. time it was not the men, not the country, but the magnanimous spirit which had caused Japan to forego compensation for the blood and treasure she had spent in vindicating what she and the world regarded as her just claims. Some say it was fear of the loss of public opinion of the world that forced Japan to this step; they are wrong. Some say it was fear of Russia; they, too, are wrong. But it was true that Japan had reached the limit she had fixed for her military operations, had established her supremacy in Korea and Southern Manchuria, acquired the Liaotung Peninsula, half of Sakhalin, a railroad line, and fishing rights, so necessary to her people. She felt that even if she occupied Siberian territory, still she would be unable to extort indemnity from Russia. So she quietly accepted the Czar's refusal and did so in a way that deserves the admiration of the world. [Anglo-Japanese treaty signed in London. Czar grants Czar grants Constitution to Russia. Wreck tion to Russia. of the Great Eastern express at Witham (many killed). Bomb explosion in Barcelona (160 injured). Treaty of Peace between Japan and Russia signed in Portsmouth. Victoria Falls Bridge opened.] THE VICTORIA FALLS BRIDGE T (A.D. 1905) GEORGE ANDREW HOBSON HE Victoria Falls of the River Zambesi are situated on the boundary which divides the administrative Provinces of Northwestern and Southern Rhodesia in the territory governed by the Chartered Company of British South Africa. They lie about 6° within the Tropic of Capricorn and about midway between the shores of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. of the The Falls were unknown to civilization until their discovery in the year 1855 by David Discovery Livingstone; and owing to their remote posi-Zambesi tion and the great difficulty and expense of reaching them, one of the grandest spectacles of Nature remained almost unvisited by white people until well within the last decade. The Victoria Falls, named by their discoverer after the late Queen, now possess a railway-station for passengers and goods which is situated on the main route of the railway projected by the founder of Rhodesia to connect Cape Town with Cairo; and a bridge close by the cataract carries the railway across the grand chasm formed by the River Zambesi. The rails reached the bank of the river in May, 1904, the distance from Cape Town on the south being 1,641 miles, and from Beira on the east coast, 950 miles. Twenty years before, it took over six months' trekking with oxen to get there from the sea. Now the distance is easily covered in a few days. The survey of the ground for the bridge was made during the time the Boer War was raging; communications southward were cut, and the construction of the railway was much delayed but never quite suspended, through military operations. In 1901, after the siege was raised, and Mr. Rhodes was released from Kimberley, he was shown at his office in London a sketch of the bridge it was then proposed to build. Although he had never visited the locality he was sufficiently familiar with it from travellers' descriptions and engineers' surveys to indicate in a general way the point of crossing. He determined that passengers in the trains going over the bridge should have a view of the Falls; and as the site wants view upon which the bridge now stands is practi Cecil of Falls from bridge. Choice of site. cally the only one which could fulfil this purpose, it may be said to have been chosen by him. The preliminary design of the bridge above referred to was prepared to meet Mr. Rhodes's views, and it received his approval. The choice of the site was finally governed by the natural formation of the walls of the chasm, advantage being taken of the mini mum distance to be spanned, combined with the soundest foothold obtainable. The position fixed upon is about 700 yards below the cataract. Difficulties construc The profile of the chasm at this spot is very striking. The width at the top is approximately 650 feet, whilst the depth from the general level of the ground to the surface of the water below is about 400 feet. The left met with in or north bank of the river is an almost per- tion of pendicular cliff, but the opposite bank has shelf about half way up, and the whole region is composed of erupted rock, mostly basalt. The general level of the surrounding country is 3,000 feet above sea-level. a The rock being very hard, the bridge was designed to fit the profile of the gorge with as little expenditure on excavation as possible; and it would have done so, but for a mistake made by the surveyor in concluding that the rock on both sides was solid. The mistake was perhaps excusable, and was not discovered until the vegetation which thrives in the hot sun and the spray from the falls had been removed, and the work of clearing the ground and the excavation of the rock had proceeded for some time. It was then found that the shelf on the right bank on which it was intended to rest one end of the principal span was covered to a considerable depth with débris. By the time the error had been discovered, the preparation of the steelwork was bridge. |