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MANYANGA TO LEOPOLDVILLE (STANLEY POOL). 109 
Having passed one day at this station to rest, I again 
started with my caravan of thirty men to journey on 
towards Stanley Pool. The country we passed through, ~ 
immediately before and after leaving Lutete, was of rather 
a peculiar appearance. Here and there were deep gullies, 
ravines, culches, canyons—I know not what to call them— 
huge clefts in the land, either made or modified by water 
eating into the soft red soil. They are similar to the same 
strange valleys and ravines round about Loanda, in 
Portuguese Africa. Their depths, however, here are filled — 
with the richest, most fantastic forms of vegetation, and 
to judge from the cries and noises that ascend out of the 
gulf of green, these glorious forests are peopled with many 
birds and monkeys. Any one of these ravines would be a 
rare hunting ground for the naturalist. 
Some distance after leaving Lutete, on attaining a high 
plateau which is traversed by the native path, a grand 
view may be obtained of the Edwin Arnold River, as it 
comes leaping in tremendous cascades into the Congo. 
The waters of this tumultuous stream look exactly like a 
white cloth laid at-imtervals over the purple-wooded hills, 
for the distance at which you are standing does not permit 
you to see the motion of its stream, and the sheet of 
white spray is apparently as still and picture-like as if 
photographed. ; 
The second night of my journey a disaster occurred to 
me, but one of such a common type in African travel that 
I venture to retail it to you here, so that you may take 
the good with the ill, and not imagine a Congo traveller’s 
experience all sunshine and brightness. We were camped 
in a village as usual, and my tent was to all appearance 
carefully and correctly pegged out. I had eaten a well- 
cooked little dinner with keen appetite, and then had 
enjoyed the unwonted luxury of a novel over a cup of 
coffee. When at length I grew tired of reading, I got into 
bed, leaving my book open, and most of the things lying 
unpacked and in disorder. I reckoned that there would 
be plenty of time to pack up in the morning. As I lay 
on my comfortable bed, soothed by a delicious sense of 
