, 1890-08-09

drapery of delicate ferns which abound.
Now cover tree, branch, twig, and creeper
with II thick moss like ii green fur. Where
the forest Is compact as described ABOVE
W. may MOI 10 more tIIan cover The ground
closely with a thick crop of phrynih, aud
amOmA, and dwarf bush; but if the lightning,
IN frequently happens, has Se vpretR the crown
OF u p:nu tree and let in lire sunlight,
or split u giant down t., its roots, or HcOrclI-
eel it dead, or a tDtmalD has been uprO0t-
ing il few trCv8, then the race for alr AMI
light has caused q multitude OF baby trees
to rush upwarl-crowdcA, crushing, and
t~reaiing upon and ~strangling Que another
until the whole is one imperviOus bush.
"But the average forest rs a mixture of
these scenes. There will probably be-
groups of fifty trees standing like columns
of IL Cathedral, grey and solemn in the
twilight and in the midst there will be II
naked and gannt patriarch, Oleached white,
and around it will have grown u young
community, each young tree clamberlng
upward TO become heir TO the area Of light
and Sunshine once occupied by the sire.
The Law OF pIimOgeniture reigns here also"
What is the real extent OF the cOntinu-
Gus forest area9 y
Is the forest of Mr.. Du Oh8lllu in the
Agowe region, and that in which Living
stone wandered between Tanganika an0
AS NIS WOk EdjIN paw W hC OhIAAO SANNO %
through which the Ttui hows9 The two
slave raIdifg parties which Mr.. Stanley
met OH the Itnri, aud which had come
north from KibOng6 on the Upper Congo,
lOnrnryed through dense forest the whole
way, meeting with not y patch of open grass
That the forest may be almost continuous
from aboat Nyangw6 to the Ituri, aud for
some distance AOrthwardsy ~ probable
enough. But THAT there is one continuous
- ~ . 80. H. l. 800.
above Lake Albert is highly improbable. H.
deed from the observations of DE Brazz@
and MIR. Stanley himself ON the lower
Congo, anA in the country betwerip that
and the OgOws, we know that there does
exist much open country there. Even IN the
region with which Mr.. Stanley specially
deals-the region along the ItHrl and TO the
north and sOuth-it Must be remembered
that it has been tpaversef only aLnrg one or
two lines. Considering the close net Work
Of rivers which characterize the Region, IL
is probable enough that over q very great.
area we have one IpnSe forest. Readers
of Schweinfurth, Eminr and Julkery wiz
remember the gallery" forests which they
described to the north and northeast
Of Mi. StanIey'S route forests lining
the banks of the rivers, and stretching
for several miles from their banks. II
may be, then, that in The ItUri region
with It's many rivers, "" have n series OF
gallery forests which have cnalesCed or
Overlapped into one continuous forest.
With the rapidly progressing ~0peming-up
Of Africa, this is Il prObiem that cannot
remain long unsOlXpd. At the same time
it should be remembered thar even in the
Amazonian basin the forest is by no means,
continuous, hut gives way IN marry places
10 great stretches of open land.
Mr.. Stanley WAS here in what. is pro.
badly the ~rainiest region Of sll Africa. We
were at first disposed TO believe that most
of the moisture found its way ard from
the indian ocean. But this is q point on
which MIR. Stanley made many careful Obser
yatiOns, and his conclusion that the great
rain-bearing winds come from the Atlantic
must be meantime accepted. At the same
time it is TO be hOpedstfIat the Government
of the Congo Free State will establish p
series of Neutrality-suspicious. over as wide an
area as possible, and so collect data which
will be useful not only to science, bat of
service to its own economic Interests. One
great service rendered by Emih Pasha was
the daily series of observations which he
carried on ut LadO for several years, ana
which render that station the one place in
Central Africa for which We have trust
worthy meteorological data. Enin carried
on his observations during the whole period
he was with Mr.. Stanley, Town to Bagamo-
20, and it is to he hoped that these Will one