Economic Geography of Canada: With an Introduction of a 68-Region System

Abstract

THE IRON SNAKE. By Ronald Hardy. London: Collins, 1965. 8*2x5*2 inches; 318 pages; endpaper map, plates. 30s The Iron Snake is about some of the men who built the railway from Mombasa to Lake Victoria between 1895 an^ 1901. The 'writing up' of African history has received great impulse from Mr. Alan Moorehead's books but Mr. Hardy, a novelist, knows less well how to avoid embroidery. Historians will dislike his treatment of evidence, his imaginative reconstructions and his lack of background knowledge?a lack made particularly evident by the errors and omissions of the introductory historical survey. The myth that the coolies were the progenitors of the Asian population of East Africa is repeated. Most African travel literature is rather surprisingly stigmatized as *dull, pompous and arid'. Many readers will be jarred by anti-Asian bias in the book. On the other hand, Mr. Hardy does succeed in highlighting some hitherto unseen facets of the railway story. He debunks Colonel Patterson's reputation as the saviour of the coolies from the Tsavo man-eating lions (though he is often unfair to Patterson). Robert Turk, guide and guard for the engineers emerges, as, more or less, the hero of these pages. Mr. Hardy describes how he persuaded Turk's wife and daughter to lend him this unusual man's diary in return for 200 shillings. It must be a fascinating document and ought to be in an archives collection. The chief engineer, George Whitehouse, Ronald Preston and his wife Florence, Joseph Thomson's former head? man Ibrahim and many other fascinating personalities also appear in the narrative. But James Martin, the famous illiterate caravan leader, who did have a connection with surveying for the railway, seems a surprising omission from a collection of colourful characters in this most colourful period of imperial activity. Despite its historical defects and some irritants in the style, the whole book provides a gripping enough tale which many will enjoy. One hopes that it will be successful enough to make someone feel it worth paying Mrs. Turk and her daughter the 1000 shillings they really wanted for the diary. R. C. Bridges