150 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
the coast except on the heads of negroes, now ocean steamers discharge 
cargoes at a railway pier one hundred miles up the river, a railroad 
continues to Leopoldville, 320 miles from the coast, connecting there 
with steamers for points still farther inland. 
The Congo River between the coast, or more properly between Boma, 
one hundred miles from the coast, and Leopoldville, is a cataract region, 
a stretch of two hundred miles through which there is a rise of land from 
700 feet above sea level to 2500 feet; or considering it in the other 
direction, down the river instead of up, there is a drop of 1800 feet 
through which the vast volume of water passes In a series of plunges 
from Leopoldville to Boma. It is this impassable cataract region that 
kept secret for so long the great highway of the Congo. Pass these 
two hundred miles and the Upper Congo stretches on through 1100 
miles of smooth river, making with its tributaries one of the greatest 
systems of natural canals on the globe. 
For many years, the late President Jesup held the hope that an 
expedition from the American Museum might be sent to the Congo. 
Even early in 1907, preliminary plans had been discussed with the 
Honorable Mr. Liebrechts, Secretary General of the Department of the 
Interior of the Congo, the negotiations being carried on through the 
Honorable James Gustavus Whiteley of Baltimore, Consulat Général 
de L’Etat du Congo, and the Honorable Pierre Mali of New York, 
Belgian Consul and an intimate personal friend of President Jesup. In 
May, 1907, the plans were so far advanced that Hermon Carey Bumpus, 
Director of the Museum, went to Brussels to confer with the Belgian 
officials. As a result of these negotiations the patronage of King 
Leopold was obtained for the project, a patronage which he evidenced 
at once by presenting large collections of ethnological material, a nucleus 
for the Museum’s African halls. With Director Bumpus, the hope for 
an expedition to the Congo became one of the most cherished among 
his many plans for the rapid advancement of the institution along lines 
coérdinate with the world’s progress. His interest, with that of Mr. 
Whiteley, accrued also by that of Mr. John B. Trevor of the Executive 
Committee of the Board of Trustees, finally crystallized in a Congo 
Expedition Committee appointed late in the fall of 1908 by Henry 
Fairfield Osborn, President of the Board of Trustees, and consisting of 
these three men, Mr. Trevor acting as chairman, and of Messrs. Robert 
W. Goelet, Herbert L. Bridgman and Frank M. Chapman as added 
