268 In the Heart of Africa 



left entirely in the hands of the natives. One load does not 

 suffice for the daily consumption of a 150-ton steamer of the 

 Flandre type. Our fuel had to be replenished more than once 

 during the course of the day. Fortunately the banks of the 

 Congo are well timbered, and there is wood in abundance. The 

 forest region ceases just before the Kasai estuary and steppe 

 country takes its place. We often peered through our glasses in 

 the hope of espying game of some sort, and in fact we occasion- 

 ally discerned medium sized red antelopes, and once the great 

 head of an elephant who was dreamily flapping his enormous 

 ears. The river fauna, too, grew more abundant. Thus far we 

 had not met with any crocodiles or hippopotami on the Congo. 

 We met them now in rich abundance. The river was animated 

 with pelicans, flamingoes, and screaming sea-eagles ; it was quite 

 amusing to see the crocodiles lying lazily stretched on the bare 

 yellow bank apparently in happy family union with the long- 

 shanked flamingoes and pelicans. They appeared entirely in- 

 different to the passing steamer. 



Up to the present, traffic on the upper Congo and on the lower 

 reaches of its great tributaries has been maintained exclusively 

 by the Congo Free State steamers. Any private vessels belonging 

 to privileged trading companies, or the scattered mission stations, 

 cannot at present be taken into consideration. There are about 

 forty-five steamers in the fleet, varying from about thirty-five to 

 five hundred tons each. Three of the largest are used for cargo 

 traffic entirely. The second larger type, like our Flandre and 

 two sister ships, have a tonnage of one hundred and fifty tons, 

 and are intended mainly for passenger traffic. There are other 

 types and sizes also down to thirty-five tons. The steamers 

 leave Stanleyville and Leopoldville every fourteen days, the 

 larger type alternating with the smaller. The journey from 

 Leopoldville to Stanleyville is accomplished in about three weeks 

 according to time-table. In the reverse direction, down stream, 

 about fourteen days are requisite. We took only eleven days, 

 having no cargo to load at any point. 



During the course of our trip we frequently passed boats which 



