268 
In the Heart of Africa 
left entirely in the hands of the natives. One load does not 
suffice for the daily consumption of a 150-ton steamer of the 
Flandre type. Our fuel had to be replenished more than once 
during the course of the day. Fortunately the banks of the 
Congo are well timbered, and there is wood in abundance. The 
forest region ceases just before the Kasai estuary and steppe 
country takes its place. We often peered through our glasses in 
the hope of espying game of some sort, and in fact we occasion¬ 
ally discerned medium sized red antelopes, and once the great 
head of an elephant who was dreamily flapping his enormous 
ears. The river fauna, too, grew more abundant. Thus far we 
had not met with any crocodiles or hippopotami on the Congo. 
We met them now in rich abundance. The river was animated 
with pelicans, flamingoes, and screaming sea-eagles; it was quite 
amusing to see the crocodiles lying lazily stretched on the bare 
yellow bank apparently in happy family union with the long- 
shanked flamingoes and pelicans. They appeared entirely in¬ 
different to the passing steamer. 
Up to the present, traffic on the upper Congo and on the lower 
reaches of its great tributaries has been maintained exclusively 
by the Congo Free State steamers. Any private vessels belonging 
to privileged trading companies, or the scattered mission stations, 
cannot at present be taken into consideration. There are about 
forty-five steamers in the fleet, varying from about thirty-five to 
five hundred tons each. Three of the largest are used for cargo 
traffic entirely. The second larger type, like our Flandre and 
two sister ships, have a tonnage of one hundred and fifty tons, 
and are intended mainly for passenger traffic. There are other 
types and sizes also down to thirty-five tons. The steamers 
leave Stanleyville and Leopoldville every fourteen days, the 
larger type alternating with the smaller. The journey from 
Leopoldville to Stanleyville is accomplished in about three weeks 
according to time-table. In the reverse direction, down stream, 
about fourteen days are requisite. We took only eleven days, 
having no cargo to load at any point. 
During the course of our trip we frequently passed boats which 
