means of a flat-bottomed boat large enough to carry cattle and
donkeys, the stretching of a strong wire rope across the river
being all that is necessary to render the passage practicable
and easy at all times. Such a contrivance would prove of
great benefit. .
Timber might certainly be floated down the river during
the rains, but rafts would not be advisable; the safest way
would be to send down the logs merely axe-dressed, either
singly or lashed in pairs, for the risk of stoppage on the way
would be too great to warrant the sawing of the timber until
it arrived below. _ ' .
Although the river is unfortunately not suited to navigation,
there are other equally important ways of utilizing it. I refer
to irrigation. With the extensive tracts of flat country lying
on both sides of the Sabaki river, the possibilities of future
development by this means are very great. Channels could
be conducted for considerable distances, a work which the
steady fall of the land towards the sea would greatly facilitate.
The higher the river was tapped, the greater the distance the
water could be carried. The returns to be looked for from *
such a system would of course be considerable, as is the case
in India, where, even on the west coast with its abundant
rain-fall, irrigation is largely carried on. In Travancore afl
the important rivers are thus tapped, and the water carried off
in channels and distributed over the country for a considerable
distance.
With regard to th& forests in the Sabaki valley, my inspection
of their capabilities was chiefly from an agricultural point
of view, but there is no doubt that their exploitation would be
a work of great importance, yielding valuable results.
A t present the local demand for timber is small, and limited
to that required for the building of dhows and^ canoes. With
the exception of a few stone houses belonging to wealthy
Arabs, Swahilis, and Indian merchants, and the Mohamedan
mosques, the towns and villages consist chiefly of wattle-and-
daub erectipns with rough jungle sticks for rafters. A small
quantity of timber is exported to Mombasa and Zanzibar, I
believe chiefly for b u i l d i n g purposes. The development of the
coast-lands by European enterprise will naturally bring about