Identifier: rivercongofromit00john (find matches)
Title: The River Congo from its mouth to Bólobó; with a general description of the natural history and anthropology of its western basin
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Johnston, Harry Hamilton, Sir, 1858-1927
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: London, S. Low, Marston & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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n came pelting down, and kept us waiting vainly for its cessation. At last, towards evening, just to make a start, I availed myself of the kind offer made by the Baptist missionary then in residence at the little Mission below the hill, and packed the men, the goods and myself in the large and roomy Mission boat, while the missionary himself steered us over the difficult passage. I camped out that night opposite Manyanga, intending to start by the early dawn along the southern road to Stanley Pool, via Lutete. The weather was miserably wet, and the ground on which the tent was pitched became a sort of morass, into which the iron legs of my bed gradually sank under my weight, so that I found myself and my bedclothes nearly level with the muddy grass. However, I arose the next morning with nothing worse than a severe sore throat, which the continuous exercise of the long days walk quickly dissipated. The general scenery on the road to Lutete is interesting MANYANG A TO LEOPOLD VILLE (STANLEY POOL). 103
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A WILD PINE-APPLE. 104 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. in character, and offers many beautiful landscapes, which, however, are all of the same type and grow somewhat monotonous in feature. A great stretch of valley, filled with rich forest, with a sounding stream that is seen flashing through the trees, is bounded by boldly-shaped hills, between each of which lesser valleys lie, that seem, as it were, tributaries of the great one, some of them mere crevasses in the mountains, but each with its tiny stream, its cascades, and its velvety woods. Occasionally, especially near Lutete, patches are cleared in the valleys, and the rich soil which the rain is always washing down from the hills is planted with manioc, tobacco, ground-nuts, and bananas. This gives, at times, a strangely civilized look to the country, and suggests the idea that in the future, when colonists flock to occupy the Congo territories, these lowlands will become true golden valleys, bringing forth all the products of the tropics; while

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