342 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
current of two to three miles an hour; and near the 
place where Captain Tuckey was compelled to abandon 
the further prosecution of the journey, which was about 
100 miles beyond Inga, or 280 miles from Cape Padron, 
it is stated that the river put on a majestic appearance, 
that the scenery was beautiful, and not inferior to any on 
the banks of the Thames; and the natives of this part all 
agreed in stating, that they knew of no impediment to the 
continued navigation of the river; that the only obstruc- 
tion in the north-eastern branch, was a single ledge of 
rocks, forming a kind of rapid, over which however canoes 
were able to pass. 
The opinion that the Zaire is in a constant state of flood, 
or, in other words, that it continues to be swelled more or 
less by freshes through the whole year, has been com- 
pletely refuted by the present expedition. But the ar- 
gument, which was grounded on this supposition, of its 
origin being in northern Africa, so far from being weak- 
ened, has acquired additional strength from the cor- 
rection of the error. Like all other tropical rivers, the 
Zaire has its periodical floods; but the quantity of its 
rise and fall is less perhaps than that of any other river of 
equal magnitude. From the lowest ebb, at which the 
party saw it, to the highest marks of its rise on the rocks, 
the ditference no where appeared to exceed eleven feet, 
and in many places was not more than eight or nine. The 
commencement of the rise was first observed above Yel- 
lala, on the 1st of September, to be three inches; and on 
the 17th of that month it had acquired, at the Tall Trees, 
