2s6 DOWN THE CONGO TO THE COAST 



3 



One day was very much like another, and every 

 mile was extremely like the last and the next — 

 an endless panorama of forest and water and islands. 

 Some excitement was caused one day by a native 

 prisoner on his way to trial at Coquilhatville, who 

 jumped overboard and swam to an island. It was 

 a marvel that he was not snapped up by one of the 

 many crocodiles which swarm there ; but luck was 

 with him, and as we were steaming down a 

 dangerously narrow channel, he was left in peace. 



One of the most interesting things to be observed 

 in a voyage down the Congo is the remarkable 

 differences in the colour of the river. The water 

 of the main stream from Stanley Falls is of a 

 chocolate-brown colour until below Nouvel Anvers, 

 where it receives some big rivers from the Equator 

 District on the south — the Lulongo and others — 

 whose waters are a clear black. Farther on it 

 is joined from the north by the great volume of 

 the Ubanghi, whose waters are a milky white, 

 and these three streams, the black, the brown, and 

 the white, flow along together for an immense 

 distance without mixing, until they finally become 

 churned up together in the narrow passage of the 

 ' Channel,' where the river is less than a mile wide. 

 Below the ' Channel,' in the course of which it is 

 joined by the yellow waters of the Kasai River, 

 the Congo widens out into the lake known as 

 Stanley Pool. On the north side of Stanley Pool 

 is a long escarpment of white cliffs, well named 



