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CHAPTER VIL. 
STANLEY POOL. 
SCENERY OF THE TPoot—Dover Criirrs—BraAzzAVILLE—KALLINA 
Pornt—DeEATH OF LIEUTENANT KALLINA—'T'HE CHIEFS ROUND 
STANLEY PooL—NGALIEMA—Boat VoyAGE To Botoso—A KIn- 
SHASHA VILLAGE—A CoNVERSAZIONE —HyPpH@NE PALMS— 
SMOKED FisH—AN AFRICAN RAIN-STORM— IMPORTANCE OF 
Diet—HirrorotamMI—Grery Parrots—Kimpoxo—A CLIMBING 
PALM, 
STANLEY Poo. is a great expansion of the Congo, about 
twenty-five miles long and sixteen broad. There are 
seventeen islands of some note, the largest of them being 
thirteen miles in length. Many sand-banks strew the 
waters of the Pool, alternately covered and uncovered, 
according to the season of the year, and there are also 
floating reed and papyrus islands, formed of these masses — 
of aquatic vegetation, which are so strongly interknitted 
by their fibres and roots that a man can stand on them. 
These floating islets are occasionally of some extent, and 
may be taken for real islands until their motion with the 
current is observed. White egrets and many waterbirds 
frequent them, and the hippopotami play round their 
reedy shores. The large islands* are resorted to by 
elephants and buffaloes, which creatures swim backwards 
and forwards from the mainland with ease. Innumerable 
waterbirds, storks, pelicans, cormorants, herons, egrets, 
sacred ibises, spur- -winged and Egyptian geese, terns and 
* ‘These vary in size and number according to the season. In the 
rainy months they are subdivided into two or three each, with shallow 
channels between. In the dry season the number of islands is much 
diminished by the retreating waters. 
