154 Notes on the Congo River. 
The homogeneous form of the African conti¬ 
nent causes a whimsical family resemblance, allow¬ 
ing for the difference of northern and southern 
hemispheres, in its four arterial streams — the 
Nile and Niger, the Congo and Zambeze. I neg¬ 
lect the Limpopo, called in its lower bed Espirito 
Santo, Manila, Manh^a (Manyisa), and Delagoa 
River; the Cunene (Nourse) River, the Orange 
River, and others, which would be first-rate 
streams in Europe, but are mere dwarfs in the 
presence of the four African giants. The Nile 
and Niger, being mainly tenanted by Moslemized 
and comparatively civilized races, have long been 
known, more or less, to Europe. The Zambeze, 
owing to the heroic labours of Dr. Livingstone, is 
fast becoming familiar to the civilized world ; and 
the Congo is in these days (1873) beginning at 
last to receive the attention which it deserves. It 
is one of the noblest known to the world. Whilst 
the Mississippi drains a basin of 1,244,000 English 
square miles, and at Carrollton, in Louisiana, dis¬ 
charges as its mean volume for the year 675,000 
cubic feet of water per second, the Congo, with a 
valley area of 800,000 square miles, rolls at least 
2,500,000 feet. Moreover, should it prove a fact 
that the Nzadi receives the Chambeze and its 
lakes, the Bangweolo (or Bemba), the Moero, near 
which stands the capital of the Cazembe, the 
Kamalondo, Lui or Ulenge, “ Lake Lincoln ” 
