188 Notes on the Congo River. 
asks with some truth, “ Who would care to risk 
being put into a cannibal pot, and be converted 
into blackman for anything less than the grand 
old Nile ? ” And the late Sir Roderick I. Murchi¬ 
son, whose geographical forecasts were sometimes 
remarkable, suspected long ago 1 that his “illustrious 
friend ” would follow the drainage of the country 
to the western coast. 
The “ extraordinary quiet rise of the periodical 
flood,” proved by the first expedition, argues that 
the Congo “ issues from the gradual overflowing 
of a lake or a chain of lakes.” The increment in 
the lower bed, only eight to twelve feet where the 
Nile and the Ganges rise thirty and the Binuwe 
fifty, would also suggest that it is provided with 
many large reservoirs. The Introduction to 
Tuckey’s “Narrative” (p. xviii.) assumes that the 
highest water is in March, but he entered the 
stream only on July 6, and the expedition ended 
in mid-October. The best informants assured 
me that from March till June there are heavy 
freshets. As in the Ogobe, the flood begins in 
early September, somewhat preceding that of the 
Lualaba, but, unlike the former stream, it attains 
its highest in November and December, and it 
gradually subsides from the end of June till 
August, about which time the water is lowest. 
1 “ Daily Telegraph,” Sept. 6, 1869. 
