New Britain herald., 1922-12-22
BELGIAN CONGO A RAD|UM SY0REH0USE Is Also a Country Of Gold .and
 Diamond Supplies

. Washington. Dec. 22.-"Discovery
 In the Belgian Congo of large quan-
 titles of pitchblende, a radium-bearing
 one--a discovery credited with the
 significant result Of reducing the price
 of radium from s120.O00 to s70,oo0 a
 gram--has served to emphasize the
 probable great importance to the
 world of this country at the heart of
 Africa when 1t shall have been fully
 developed" says abulletin from the sWHhington. D. C.. headquarters of
 the National Geographic society.
 Tn its potentinlities. the. Belgian
 Congo might be called the Brazil of
 Africa" continues the bulletin. Like the largest of South American states.
 1t is of vast extent, covers the heart
 of a continent is situated in the trop-. les, and has flowing through 1t one of the worlds greatest rivers, capable of
 carrying an empires commerce. It is
 only to the Amazon, premier Of rivers,
 that the Congo river can in truth be
 compared. Other great streams are longer than either, but none ap-
 breaches them- closely in the volumes iof water which they pour into the sea.
 The average width of the Congo is five Amiles for about half its nearly 5000
 miles of length, and in places it is as much as Is miles wide.
 Area One-Third of U. s.
 Perhaps the vast bulk of Belgian
 Congo can best be understood if one
 imagines the country lifted bodily and gset down on the surface of the United States. It's 90o,Oo0, square miles <, would cover almost exactly one-third of the area, not including Alaska. If < the southwestern corner of Congo were placed at San Diego, California, the southern boundary would roughly
 correspond with the Mexican border, and the southeastern corner would fall at the southern point of Texas.
 Forming very rough square,, it's
 northeastern corner would lie atsDe
 Moines and it's northeastern corner in Yellowstone park.
 But though this comparison gives a good idea of Congo's great size, its latitude and climate are far different from those of the states covered. If it were shifted to the western hemi- s.sphere in it's true latitude it would lie ,.astride the Amazon and would cover t.lHOSt Ul lIlG NuIdilttS dHu d ldL 6C oilCS of northern and central Brazil.
 Radio Replaces Signals
 ,s,. What is now the Belgian Congo shas had an unusual history Living stone and Stanley put the country on the map Soon afterward, in 1882, an international committee organized a government, called it Congo Free { State, and selected King Leopold of Belgium to be it's ruler. Many irregu- larities in the administration. of the ( region were, alleged to have resulted sfrom this personal rule, and in 1908 fI.eopold ceded the territory to Bell s4gium. A year later King Albert came Sjdo the Belgian throne, reforms were sapushed in fhe Congo and a new con- ! sstructive era began. " Much Money Spent
 < Measured in dollars and effort ex- < pended, much has been done to open sup the Belgian Congo. Fleets of gov ernment as we'll as private steamers t5ply the several navigable stretches. of the Congo and the lakes. Railroads z have been built around the various regions of rapids and falls, and are X being pushed into the interior, and 4laid to connect with British and Por- { tuguese lines at the borders. Scores of radio stations have been set up and now fling their messages where in the past, savage drum signals alone were {. heard. The Belgians even have a trans Congo aeroplane mail service hich rushes European mail across tgthe country twice a month on the ar ! rival of steamers at the Atlantic port 7. of Boma, at the mouth of the Congo. & Gorilla Haunted Eden
 x. But with all this activity, the sur 2 face of the Belgian Congo's possbili- ties has barely been scratched. Enor. nous tropical jungles like those of the Amazon valley await proper forestry. In the southeast are extensive rolling 5prairies teeming with game that, with Hthe solution of the tsetse-fy problem, would make excellent cattle ranges. Y And chance discoveries have shown that the mineral stores of the country are seemingly unlimited. Copper, tin, gold, and diamonds to the value of many millions of dollars have been ex- fracted. Some coal and iron is mined and it is believed that much more exists. Now, when science Is finding epoch-making uses for radioactive substances, the opening up of what lis believed to be the worlds richest < sradium ores caps Congo's mineral cli- 1 max.
 Congo is not entirely torrid land. | In the extreme east around Lake kivu-itself 600 feet above the sea- rise mountains as high as Pike's Peak. 1In this upland region the weather is | delightful and the slopes and valleys ssare determined by travellers as among the worlds beauty spots. Nearby the might sky is lighted by the boiling 2 acauldron of Africa's Kilauea. This ' Eden is the home of large numbers of mans closest non human relatives, gorillas. The Belgian government is considering the setting aside of Q large sarea in thls region as a gorilla refuge where the creatures can be preserved s.from the extinction which threatens them, and where scientists may study them in their natural haunts. Ma sturalists have found that unless cor tnered these gorillas are far from fero- s cious, and it is predicted that if pro- stected they win become entirely tanned"
 ADOPT HIKING.