TO BOLOBO. 167 
salt and pepper, that were to go, together with the fowl 
bouillon, to make a perfect soup. The flesh has to be cut 
off from the fowl bones, and is put with them into the pot . 
to simmer slowly. Then the liver and gizzard are chopped 
up fine and thrown into the savoury bubbling broth, and 
the result is an appetising and soothing soup, in which a 
great amount of nourishment may be commodiously 
swallowed. The preparation of this meal, however, is 
somewhat lengthy, and ere it is served to me on my 
impromptu table of chests and boxes, the dusky drowsy ~ 
night has swallowed up the beauties of the twilight. How 
utter is the feeling of isolation here! There is nothing to 
alarm or sadden; on the contrary, the girdle of darkness 
round our little island gives it a cosy feeling of security 
and peace, but we seem here so remote from everything 
but the stars. 
March 5th—We started by the early dawn in order to 
reach Bolobo by the evening if possible. The river, in this 
part of its course, owing no doubt to its great breadth, 
appears to be very shallow, and the boat is constantly 
running aground on sand-banks: nor do the natives’ 
canoes that are round us escape entirely this contrariety, 
however slight their draught of water may be. It has 
a very extraordinary effect to see men walking halfway 
over a great branch of the river, with water only up 
to their ‘ankles, tracing the course of some hidden sand- 
bank. 
The high hills and downs that have hitherto bordered 
the Congo begin to grow more and more distant, and 
finally disappear into blue obscurity. One last range 
comes into view and ‘terminates abruptly in a solitary 
peak, somewhat picturesquely jagged, and then the great 
basin of central Africa begins, and splendid forests take 
possession of the banks of the river, woods of such a mag- 
nificent character that I think I have never seen richer 
growth of vegetation in Africa. 
There are here so many islands that it is difficult to see 
the mainland, except at rare intervals. One of them alone 
is ten miles long. 
