The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-11-02
Congo Scenery.

Congo Scenery.
1 left Isangila on January 10 with my
three Zanzibaris to go up the Congo In
the little steamer Royal, now removed
TO the upper river and forming part Of
Mr.. Stanley's fiotilla.
The scenery at first was very pretty.
The banks were richly forested, and
masses of creepers overspread the river
side trees. Sometimes they appeared
like green cloth thrown lightly over
the foliage, showing its. masses and
forms distinctly marked underneath.
Sometimes they formed a delicate emer-
aid cobwebbery, or upreared great walls
of vegetation, looking as if carefully
trimmed into uniformity of surface, but
often scarcely foot in thickness. l
can hardly give just idea of these
beautiful examples of vegetable archi-
lecture. Often these creepers would
stretch out, as it were, fresh series of
constructions, their long straight Ilianas
acting as scaffold poles Then would
come the horizontal interlacing arms
which soon formed a giant latticework,
and on this foundation the beautiful
and uniform foliage breaks out, until.
soon, thin walls and enclosures are
made, generally round some giarS tree.
How lovely these arbors seemed to rest
in! Beautiful pink convolvuli with a
crimson center, and pale yellow flowers
of the creeping cucurbits, varied the
monotony OF the green, while the
orange-red gourds of the latter shone
like little lamps amid the ,diapered foil
age. The giant speckled king-tisher
and his little active black and white
brother haunted the fairy creeks that
these walls of vegetation enclosed, and
on the gaunt, bare branches which
forced their way through the tender
interlacing creepers like wild, protest
ing arms trying to rid themselves of a
clinging and deceitful embrace-On the
gnarled and whitened boughs the fish
ing eagle perched, greeting our APP
pfoach with cheerful, boisterous
screams. A giant heron, too, sat on a
branch amid somber shade, where he
woul. have remained quite indistin-
guishable from the gray boughs and
boleS around him, but, overcome with a
spasm of tardy fear, he flounced out
from his retreat, nearly knocked against
the funnel of the steamer, and tapped
his huge wings with frightful strivings
to get away.
Here and there the Congo became
strewn with rocky islets, sparsely crest
ed with trees, and in and out of these
the stream was whirling and eddying
and babbling over the hidden rocks.
We stopped at one of these islands, and
at This spot the lighter we had hitherto
been towing had to be closely tied
alongside the little steamer, for together
we were to cross a formidable whirl-
pool. When we turned the island, we
saw the vortex, with great tiocks of
foam like balls of cotton wool dancing
madly in a perpetual round. Full pres
Sure was put on. and in we went-tiZ-
zing!-and out again at right angles,
so that some of the balls of foam, like
bewildered captives in an enchanter's
magic circle, are set free by our sudden
breaking through the meshes, and go
gayly floating down the stream. Some
times there are long stretches of low
rocks in the river, looking like rows of
states stacked in q builders yard: and
on the shore of the stream and along
the island beaches would show banks of
dazzling white sand. apparently above
fioodmark, since numbers of pratincoles
had made their nests there. These
pretty little birds, called scientifically
Glareola, are really small waders, dis
family allied to the plovers, and with
even a far-off relationship, perhaps, to
pigeons and sand grouse; but to a
superficial observer they seem merely
large, stout swallows, and certainly re-
semble these birds by the way in which
they pursue the insects over the surface
of the water, flying low and catching
their prey in mid-flight. On the Congo,
between Isangila and Manyanga they
are found in tiocks of over 1000 at a
time, absolutely covering the isolated
rocks on which they perch. Perhaps
their presence in such large numbers is
the reason why in this stretch of the
river mosquitoes are so happily absent
In the broader parts of the Congo
groups of trees stand in the very middle
of the river, stemming its rapid flood.
They must mark the sites of rocks and
banks uncovered in the dry season, or.
more probably, of newly submerged
islands, for otherwise the Seeding tree
could hardly have obtained sufficient
growth in one dry season to Withstand
the rivers flood.-LO1adon Truth.