60 $A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
valley of waving grass, and yet another hillside, lay before 
us. The descent was little less fatiguing than the climb 
had been, for the legs grew weary and palsied with con- 
tinual jumps of three feet from block to block. Then the 
grass of the succeeding valley tore and scratched us, and 
as I mounted the next, and what seemed the last, ascent, 
I was convinced that the Falls of Yelala could never 
reward me for such exertions. 
However, we eventually ceased to ascend, and as the 
path began to round the summit of the hill, we looked 
down on an imposing scene, whilst the sudden turn in the 
_ path brought to our ears a deafening roar of falling water. 
It was a grand view, and the very position from which 
we gazed on this scene was enough to render it more than 
usually striking. The path hung just on the edge of a 
conical hill, and here, where we ~ paused, a great slab of 
basalt jutted out over a terrible precipice. From this pro-— 
jection we looked down some hundred feet on the giant © 
Congo, leaping over the rocks and dashing itself wrath- 
fully against the imprisoning. hills. Several islands 
bestrewed its stream, one especially remarkable from 
being a mass of velvet. woods. This was called the 
«Tsland of Pelicans,” for numbers of these great birds used 
this inaccessible spot as a breeding-place. 
Before the first fall took place the river came oliding on 
so smoothly, with such a glassy surface, as if never sus- 
pecting the terrible conflict before it, and when at first it 
met the rocks and the descent it streamed over them 
almost unresistingly until, exasperated by repeated checks, 
in the last grand Fall of Yelala, it lashed itself into white 
and roaring fury, and the sound of its anger deafened one’s 
ears, and the sight of its foam dazzled the eyes. I had 
wished to pause long on this rock, and even make it the 
limit of my journey, but the old chief, who was enter- 
prising enough to personally conduct a party of Cook’s 
tourists (and who knows that he may not yet do so %), 
insisted on my completing the descent, and viewing the 
falls from their banks. I really doubted whether I could 
ever manage to do so without at any rate seriously — 
