A Visit to Banza Chis alia. 
111 
of the left rib were worn near the heart, to stop 
bleeding. This manatus, like the elephant and 
the hippopotamus, has long disappeared before 
the gun. 
After some three quarters of an hour we reached 
the entrance of Chisalla Creek, which is the north¬ 
ernmost branch of the main stream. On the left 
(north) was a plain showing traces of a large vil¬ 
lage, and we sighted our first grass-island—a 
compact mass of fibrous, earth-washed roots and 
reedy vegetation, inhabited by serpents and ardeine 
birds. To the right, or southward, rises the tall 
island of Boma, rocky and wooded, which a narrow 
channel separates from its eastern neighbour, Chi¬ 
salla Islet. The latter is the royal Pere la Chaise, 
the graves being kept carefully concealed ; white 
men who have visited the ground to shoot ante¬ 
lope have had reason to regret the step. Here 
also lie three officers of the Congo Expedition— 
Messrs. Galwey, Tudor, and Cranch—forgotten, 
as Gamboa and Reitz at Mombasah. 
The banks of the winding creek were beautified 
with the malaguetta pepper, the ipomaea, the hibis¬ 
cus, and a yellow flower growing upon an aquatic 
plant like a magnified water-cress. Animal life 
became somewhat less rare; we saw sandpipers, 
hawks, white and black fish-eagles, and long- 
1 egged water-hens, here supposed to give excellent 
sport. An embryo rapid, formed by a gneiss-band 
