206 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
to me, priceless treasures. Letters from Europe I had 
not had for many months, and here there were dozens in 
my lap. Graphics, Punches and other newspapers stared 
at me from their battered postal covers, as 1f surprised to 
find themselves, probably for the first time, on the Upper 
Congo. I passed subsequently a very happy evening, and 
so did my men, for | had given largesse with an sa 
hand in consideration of my “good fortune. 
Our journey the next morning was comparatively 
uneventful. The flies were peculiarly annoying, espe- 
cially a large brown one that gives a very cruel bite. 
They seemed to increase in numbers as we approached 
the Pool. 
I stopped for a short time to draw some white lilies * 
that grew by the borders of the river in great numbers, 
and were very noticeable at this season of the year, with 
their tall clusters of delicate white flowers. We rowed 
into the Pool towards the afternoon, and I was more than 
ever struck with its imposing aspect. I can quite imagine 
that Stanley, on descending the Congo in 1877, must 
have thought himself entering here on some great lake or 
inland sea, as he saw the clear horizon of water expanding 
before him. 
The vegetation which clothes the precipitous shores on 
the south side of Stanley Pool, near the entrance from the 
Upper River, is one of the most magnificent spectacles 
the Congo offers. Rising nearly perpendicularly from the 
water, the forest climbs the hillsides, higher than the eye 
can reach, without a single break in its luxuriance. The 
variety of colours, too, at this season, when most of the 
trees are in blossom, is particularly striking. One tree- 
top will be covered with scarlet flowers scattered with a 
liberal hand ; another has pendulous flowers of a pinky- 
white hanging eracefully by their long stalks amid the 
sombre masses of foliage; while errant creepers in 
exuberant growth trail their yellow and purple blossoms 
over the victims they entwine. There is every note struck 
* Crinum zeylanicum. A common lily in equatorial Africa, giving 
a most fragrant scent, and much thronged by the flies and bees. 
