os Se ee 
“Mea ei a 
re _ or 
30 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
pursuit to the canoe-men, who laughed at its persistence. 
Suddenly, however, the crocodile sprang from the water 
and seizing the white man by the leg, nearly dragged him 
into the river. . The Kabindas, who * were paddling, inter- — 
vened with great decision and presence of mind, and beat 
the crocodile about the head with their paddles so severely. 
that he moderated his demands, and went off with a foot 
instead of the white man’s. whole body. ‘The victim was 
taken to an English merchant of. Ponta da Lenha, who is 
skilled in surgery, and who, I. believe, saved the life of 
the crocodile’s victim by skilful treatment. _ This should 
teach travellers on the Congo not to welcome the com- 
panionship of crocodiles, but fire at them in and out of 
season. -Hippopotami- are not so frequently seen on this 
lower part of the river, but become more numerous as we 
approach Boma. - The carnivora here are represented by. 
civets, lovely little genet cats and leopards, whose claws 
are used to decorate the cops of the emer on the Lower 
Congo. 
The next “sacle a importance is hone da ign 
where steamers call for supplies of wood-fuel (whence the 
name in Portuguese—“ The ‘Wood Point”). . Ponta da 
Lenha, forty miles from the sea, and just out of. the district 
of the mangrove swamps, offers little of interest or note 
save its fine orange trees, the only ones to be found on 
the lower river. This place is barely above the level of 
the stream, and the shore has to be protected with piles, 
as the Congo is eating Ponta da Lenha away. Only a 
little while ago, a French factory disappeared completely 
into the water, which now flows twenty feet above it. In 
the ordinary course of: events this place would long ago 
have disappeared without the intervention of man ; for 
the Lower Congo seems to be widening its bed year by 
year, and even striking out new issues towards the sea— 
at present all of them blind alleys; but the Congo is so 
ambitious of having a delta, that I am sure he will 
ultimately attain what his older fellows in Africa, the 
Nile, the Niger, and the Zambezi already possess. 
Boma, once, and that not long since, the limit of 
