The Kernel ward to Stanley Falls we have a navigable length of
Argument. 1068 miles ; from the lowest fall of this, last series
to Nyangwe there is a course of 385 miles * from
Nyangwe to Mweru the river course extends 440
miles; the length of Lake Mweru is 67 miles ; thence
to lake Bangweolo is 220 miles; Lake Bangweolo,
or Bemba, is 161 miles long; and thence to its sources
in the Chibale Hills, the Chambezi has a length of
360 miles; the full total of these several courses
being 3034 miles.
For convenience of description, as well as in accordance
with the physical characteristics of the Congo
basin, I am compelled to divide the river’s course into
five sections, thus : The Lower Congo from the sea to
Le'opoldville, which includes the maritime and a portion
of the mountain region I the Upper Congo, extending
from the Livingstone Falls near Leopoldville
to the Stanley Falls; the Webb-Lualaba* region, the
Chambezi section, and the basin of the Tanganika.
In the Lower Congo section the river is navigable
for a distance of 110 miles. First by an estuarylike
expansion 70 miles long, varying from two to
seven miles and a third in breadth, and then by a
deep channel in some places over 300 feet deep, and
about 1500 yards wide. The present seaport is on the
■ right bank of Banana Creek, at the mouth of the river.
What might be called a strictly maritime region
of the. Congo is a very narrow belt lying between
* So called by Dr. Livingstone in honour of W. D. Webb, Esq,, of
Newstead Abbey, Nottingham.
the sea and the hilly region. In the neighbourhood-The: Kernel-
of Boma the mountainous region commences with Argument,
numberless lines or groups of inferior hills which are
yet attached to one another, and rise gradually after
an infinite number of undulations, to the height of
2300 feet above the level of the sea.
In reality the breadth of the mountain region direct
east and west is 240 geographical miles *, but the
course of the Congo is diagonally through it, in a
fissure-like trough running from north-east to southwest,
into which ships may penetrate a depth of 50
miles from above the estuary of the lower river, while
on the eastern side there is a navigable diagonal course
of 174 miles leading into the plain-like lands of the
Upper Congo.
From the height of Iyumbi ridge, for instance, which
is 2276 feet above the sea, by sweeping the horizon
round' with a theodolite horizontally, the topmost
altitude , of the boldest hills which appeared in view
throughout an area of 2000 square miles did not vary
50 feet in height, although there were a countless
number of hilltops and grey swells of upland separated
by crevasses,- gorges, and long sinuous watercourses?;
proving that the land we surveyed was a disintegrated
plateau, denuded in the course of ages of its rich loam
by numberless tropic rain seasons. On the larger levels
where the loamy soil was still retained, groves of
palms and: bits: of tropical forest were seen, indicating
what the land might have been originally. The
hollows, into which some of the soil has been washed