* * * *
It has now become so customary to " cross " Africa (and, of course, to write a fat book about it) by aeroplane, motor, river-steamer and railway-train, that the world seems to have forgotten how the first great crossings of the Continent were all made on foot. Even the South African Govern. meat," according to The West Australian as noted in Mr. Ronald A. Monson's Across Africa on Foot (Elkin Mathews and Marrot, Ifis1); told a young Australian that " if he succeeds in his intention; he will be the first white man to cross the Continent, on..tfoot." Clest_magnifique, and so Mr. Monson, an Australian journalist, was _fired to tackle with a single companion a .,very plucky march from Cape Town to Cairo, which is deseribed- in this book. Of it little more need be said save that it is written in prodigious " fine " English, lit up by joyous spellings such as gutteral and hugh (for huge). But perhaps these are Australian modes. With the, easy _way_ :of a newspaperman glorious hashes are made of native languages and custom, Afrikaans, local and natural history.. But it is_ something to be. able to look back on a walk of 7,628 miles in 469 days.
Previous page
