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‘ 
STANLEY POOL. 139 . 
—the young palm looks like a broad-leaved bamboo with 
divided leaves—suggesting strongly its poorer and simpler 
relations, it soon begins to aspire, and from being first a 
eround-erowing shrub, it throws out a long flexible stem 
rising far above the first humble set of fronds, and by 
means of its sharp hooks making use of every support in 
its way to climb higher and higher. Soon the leaves or 
fronds become more elegant. They split up from their 
previous bifid condition into many filaments, and at length 
the once lowly, feeble thing, by making use of everything 
that comes in its way and can give it a lift, looks proudly 
forth from the top of some giant tree, and, for a while 
content with the attainment of its ambition, has time to 
pause and throw out its flowers, which turn to bunches of 
scarlet dates. Its fruit has a thin sweetish pulp around it 
which seems harmless, at any rate to man, but I have 
never noticed any bird or beast devouring it. The colour 
of the leaves is a yellow-green, and it forms a decidedly 
bright addition to the river landscapes. The curious thing 
is that it is nowhere to be seen on the Congo between 
Stanley Pool and the coast. With the rapids it comes to 
an end, and therefore, as one of the first striking additions 
to the flora of the Congo which is met with on Stanley 
Pool, see p. 122. | | 
We camped out after leaving Kimpoko in a beautiful 
spot near the end of the Pool, in a forest clearing. Un- 
fortunately the mosquitoes swarmed to such a dreadful 
degree that all comfort was out of the question, and I had 
to take my meals as hastily as possible, stamping and 
swearing meanwhile at each successive bite; and with 
reason, for whether these mosquitoes were distinctly 
venomous, or whether my impoverished blood was easily 
poisoned, either for one reason or the other every bite 
turned to an ulcer, sothat my ankles and neck were in a 
few days covered with disagreeable little sores, remaining 
comparatively painless, but quite incurable until I left the 
coast of Africa. It was little use, even, on this occasion 
to seek shelter inside my mosquito-curtains, for somehow 
or other many blood-suckers contrived to enter, and I 
