352 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
most exuberant vegetation, presenting to the eye one con- 
tinued forest of tall and majestic trees, clothed with foliage 
of never-fading verdure. Numerous islands are also seen 
to rise above the surface of the river, some mantled with the 
thick mangrove, mingled with the tall and elegant palm, 
and others covered with the KFgyptian papyrus, resembling 
at a distance extensive fields of waving corn. Perhaps it 
may be said, that the great characteristic feature of the 
banks and islands of the lower part of the Zaire is the man- 
grove, the palm, the adansonia and the bombax, with in- 
termediate patches of papyrus; and after the alluvial flats 
have ceased, naked and precipitous mountains, resting on 
micaceous slate, which, through an extent of at least fifty 
miles, forms the two banks of the river; the only inter- 
ruption to this extended shore of slate being a few narrow 
ravines in which the villages of the natives are situated, 
amidst clumps of the wine-palm, and small patches of cul- 
tivated ground. On the summits of the hills, also, which 
Captain Tuckey distinguishes by the name of plateaus, 
there is a sufficiency of soil for the cultivation of the ordi- 
nary articles of food ; and here too numerous small villages 
occur amidst the bombax, the mimosa, the adansonia and 
the palm; but the soil on the tops and sides is of a hard 
clayey nature, incapable of being worked in the dry season, 
but sufficiently productive when mellowed by the heavy 
rains, and with the aid of a heated atmosphere. 
The country however becomes greatly improved in every 
respect, beyond the narrows of the river. Hitherto the 
general characteristic features of the geology of the coun- 
