248 
In the Heart of Africa 
impoverished and alternating with savannahs in the Congo region, 
to the great lakes,’ etc. Or again, ‘ The great, gloomy. Equatorial 
forest, which has no connection with the coastal forests, and 
which was traversed by Stanley, Emin Pasha, Count Gotzen 
and a few other travellers, stretches deep into the interior of the 
Congo territory. It cannot in any way compare, however, with 
the virgin forests of Brazil or of the Sunda Islands.’ 
“ Regarding the first quotation, the point at issue is not that 
of a vast uninterrupted forest in the Congo basin; it is an 
accepted fact that broader or narrower strips alternate with 
savannahs there; in the second quotation the existence of an 
Equatorial forest is recognised, but the character of tropical 
virgin forest and any connection with the woods near the West 
African coast is not allowed. 
“ In contrast to these statements I would like to quote a sen¬ 
tence from Stanley : ‘ Visions of Brazil may be conjured up in 
the Congo basin; the river itself is reminiscent of the Amazon, 
and the Central African forests of the immense forests of 
Brazil.’ 
“ From the Cameroons and Gaboon coasts of the Atlantic 
Ocean, the waves of an African virgin forest surge uninter¬ 
ruptedly up to the foot of the Ruwenzori Mountains in the far 
east; it is only laced in by savannahs like a narrow strait be¬ 
tween the most south-easterly point of the Cameroons and the 
Ubangi. Now, if we take only the eastern portion of this 
hemmed in part, the actual Equatorial forest, we perceive an 
immense mass of forest bounded by the curve of the Congo- 
Lualaba from Coquilhatville, on the Equator, to Nyangwe; 
farther by a line from Nyangwe to the Burton Gulf of Lake Tan- 
ganjika; in the east approximately by the western edge of the 
Central African rift-valley ; in the north by the Uelle-Ubangi; 
and in the west by the Ubangi in its lower course. Then comes 
a junction with the forests of the south Cameroons. This forms 
a territory in round figures of 600,000 square kilometres, whose 
connection with the genuine tropical forest is unbroken, either 
by mountains worthy of the name, or by any strips of pasture 
