, 1877-12-28
The Congo River,

Thanks TO Stanleys pluck and epergv
the wcll-iounded belief that Livingstone,s
Lualaba WAS no other than the Clngo b.s
now been fully justified; aud hencefortb
the Congo must rank with the three or
four great rivers Of the globe. II IN
Africa what the Amazon is 10 Sluth Amer.
ca, the Mississippi to North America. the
Yang. tse. kiapg to Asia. II certainlye1.
ceeds the Nile in volume, and possibly
also In area of drainage. Rising In the
upland, north Of Lake Nyassa, ii flows
northerly through the great interior basin
OF Africa, until it reaches a point about
the second degree Of north latitude
(long. "a deg ~ when It sweryes TO the
westward, then To the southwestyard. up.
Ill it approaches the coast. Where Liy-
ingstone was stopped the Luslaba. was a
noble stream from 1000 TO 5000 yards
wide; after making the great bend near
the equator it develops into still broad.
er stream, from two to ten miles wide,
choked with islands. At the cataracts'
where the river breaks through the coast
mountains, the stream narrows TO 500
yards or less; then spreads out into
broad stream from two to four miles
wide, with current flowing about three
miles an hour. The volume of water dis
charged is enormous; Captain Tuckey's
estimate-2,000, 900 cubic feet minute
is probably not so far from the truth. At
its mouth the Congo is thousand feet
deep, and the water has been found to be
perfectly fresh nine miles from the coast
For forty miles out the sea is perceptibly
frcshened by the vast volume of fresh wa
ter poured into 1t. The tide is felt as far
as the first cataract, 140 miles up the
river, In its lower course the river
spreads out into extensive swamps GOV.
cred with mangrove and palm trees.
The first successful explorer of the
lower Congo was Captain Tuckey, who
assembled the river 10 a considerable dis
tance above the cataracts, when he
was forced to turn back. The belief was
that the Congo drained some large lake
north of the equator, and was continu-
alton of the Niger.
The next to reach tho Niger was Cap
tain Hunt, of the British steamer Aiecto,
in 1857. Six years later Captain Burton
attained the same point. In 1879 Lieu
tenant Granby's expedition for the relief
Of Livingstone assembled still further, but
was recalled in consequence of Living.
stones death. Camerons failure TO de-
scend the river is fresh in the memory of
all. He was forced to take a more south
erly course to the coast by the opposition
of the oannibal tribes, through whose
territoryeStanley's progress was a contin-
uous battle. The German expedition, un-
der Captain Won Homeyer, which started
in 1875 to explore the lower Congo to
prepare the way for German colonization,
will probably be heard from through
Stanley, when details are heard of his haz-
ardous yet successful journey. One i'm
portant point in connection with the fu-
ture of the Congo is already apparent;
Cameron's scheme for the development of
the Great Interior Basin by means of
steam navigation is likely to be long de-
layed. The great cataracts near the
equator, mot less than those near the coast,
must ever present serious distractions to
the commercial development of the in
terior.-Scicntife american.