ViVI TO ISANGILA. 79 
end of the island, right across the river, are strewn hidden 
rocks, but over these the two meeting currents leap 
triumphantly, and the waves madly race with a joyous. 
clamour to their fraternal union. Some distance after the 
junction, froth and roar are over, but a great and irre- 
sistible body sweeps on its course, letting no obstacle 
stem its overwhelming tide. On the island the trees 
bordering the water tremble and nod paralytically as the 
great current strikes against them. but higher up the 
foliage is massive, rich and majestic, and stands haughtily 
unmoved by the racing flood beneath, like an unbending 
aristocracy superciliously regarding the mad progress of 
the democratic torrent that seems so far beneath it. But 
the current, however madly, is flowing towards an end, 
the Sea; and it either leaves the great trees far, far 
behind it on its course, or, with cruel, overwhelming force 
washes away their foundations, and carries them, poor 
victims, to be dashed to pieces in the cataracts, and to 
strew with their shorn fragments the distant shores where 
the waves of river and sea may drift them. 
The views of water, wood, and rock are so fine from 
here, on this little quay, that in my imagination I see the 
day when civilization shall have covered the Congo, and 
when places lke these will be the resort of tourists and 
lovers of nature; when there shall be a railway from the 
coast, a station a mile off, “Gare des Chutes de Ngoma,” 
with omnibuses and touts—‘“ Par ici, monsieur, pour 
VHotel du Beau Rivage;” “The Falls Inn, sir, very 
comfortable, sir, splendid view,’ and so on. Then there | 
will be prospectuses and advertisements in the “Gazette 
dIsangila” and the “Congo Times.” What embarrass- 
ment one will naturally feel at having to choose between 
the Falls Inn and its “twenty acres of tropical forest 
attached,” and the Hotel du Beau Rivage with its billiards 
and dancing casino! | 
As I lett the spot where I was ruminating on these 
possibilities, and entered the “twenty acres of tropical 
forest attached,’ I could not escape a pang of regret at 
the thought of the degradation and danalité that this 
