208 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO, 
compactly massed in their leafage, others grow erratically 
and in disordered tufts, Beautiful Albizzias dominate 
their fellows, clothed in foliage of dark-green velvet ; 
dracenas raise their spiky heads here and there from out 
of the soft verdant mass. The large flat leaves of a fig 
alternate with the feathery palm fronds, while many 
stems are completely disguised by the network of eraceful 
creepers which masks them like a vegetable cobweb. The 
calamus palm makes a sort of lattice-work fence, rising 
straight up from the water’s edge, and seems effectually 
to forbid trespassing in these fairy forests, while along the 
river’s brim lines of white lilies stand like sentinels to see 
the barrier is not passed. 
Before evening we had arrived at Kimpoko, a newly- 
founded station at the northern entrance to Stanley Pool. 
Here the pleasant face of Lieutenant Coquilhat* was — 
ereeting me as I landed, and after four months’ absence 
from anything connected with the outside world this 
return to the outskirts of civilization (which, owing to 
Mr. Stanley, Stanley Pool has now become) completely 
prevented my sleeping till a late hour in the night, and I 
kept up poor Coquilhat talking all the time, and discussing 
the European news of half a year. 
The following day I again set out on my journey 
towards Léopoldville, and voyaged for three hours amid 
the islands and sand-banks, and the great placid waters of 
the Pool. The ‘ Dover Cliffs” glittered in the morning 
sunlight in all their chalk-like br illiancy, and, with the 
soft green grass that crowned their scarped summits, 
looked singularly English. I arrived at Kiushasha towards 
mid-day, and saw there the /oya/, and quite a fleet of — 
other boats. Stanley was here, they told me, conducting 
a palaver. I landed, and walked up through the tall, 
luxuriant grasses, and past the many native houses, 
deserted by their inhabitants, to the focus of attraction, 
which was a large enclosure between high palisades, — 
* Since—like many other gallant and enthusiastic men—dead from 
fever and overwork; but not before he had risen to high eminence in 
the Congo Free State.—H. H. J. 
