BY STEAMER DOWN THE CONGO 255 



of the bank. One of the crew jumps overboard 

 and swims ashore with a steel rope, which he ties 

 to a tree, and the steamer is secure for the night. 

 The native passengers are not allowed to sleep 

 on board ; they scramble on to the bank, and the 

 forest is soon alive with shouts and laughter and the 

 sound of chopping wood, and the air becomes heavy 

 with the smoke of their fires. At eight o'clock the 

 ship's bell rings the * Cease talk,' and it is pleasant 

 to sit on deck in the cool silence and watch the 

 great river sliding by to the tune of the crickets 

 and the tree-frogs in the forest behind you. 



The river is immensely broad, reaching a width 

 of twenty-four miles from bank to bank between 

 Basoko and Nouvel Anvers, but it is so much 

 interrupted by islands that the whole expanse can 

 never be seen at one time. Navigation is ex- 

 ceedingly difficult on account of the sand-banks, 

 which are constantly shifting their position, and 

 steamers frequently spend a week or two firmly 

 embedded on an unsuspected shoal. We spent 

 twenty-four hours stuck on a bank, and as the 

 river was falling rapidly, it was a question whether 

 the cargo could be landed in time to lighten the 

 ship, before we were hopelessly aground until the 

 next rainy season. Happily, when 50 tons of 

 rubber had been laboriously dumped ashore on 

 the nearest island, half a mile distant, we floated 

 off, and then wasted another day in loading up 

 again. 



