Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/517

THE MIDDLE CONGO. 425 surrounding grassy plains, studded here and there with clumps of trees, and roamed over by herds of buffaloes and antelopes. Below Lake Lanji, the Lua-Laba, or rather the Congo, flows for some 60 miles through a still unexplored region. But from the confluence of the Lu-Ama, descending from the mountains skirting Tanganyika, it is now known to geogra- phers throughout its whole course to the Atlantic. At this point it is already a great river, over 1,200 yards broad, and with a mean but not constant depth of 12 or 15 feet. It flows first westwards, then nearly due north to the equator, sometimes in a single channel, sometimes ramifying into several branches encir- cling wooded islands or sandbanks. Here it is joined on both sides by several large affluents, between two of which, the Lu-Fu and Kankora, it rushes in a narrow rocky bed over a series of seven cataracts, obstructing all navigation. These cataracts, where the stream crosses the equator and trends north-westwards, have been named the Stanley Falls, in honour of the daring explorer who dis- covered and successfully traversed them. Below the falls the river, flowing at an altitude of 1,400 feet above the sea, expands into a broad placid stream offering no further impediments to navigation till it approaches the Atlantic. In this section it is joined by several great affluents, such as, from the south the Lu-Bilash and Lu-Lami (Lo-Mami), which rises near another Lo-Mami, flowing through the Sankuru to the Kassai ; from the north the Arawhimi, rivalling the main stream itself in volume, and rising in the highlands to the west of Lake Muta-^'zige. Stanley supposed at first that the Arawhimi w^as a continuation of the Welle, discovered by Schweinfurth in the Kiam-Mam country ; but the subsequent journeys of Bohndorff, Lupton, Casati, and Junker have shown that the Welle lies farther north, and that the true headstream of the Arawhimi is the Nepoko, seen by Junker to the south of the Monbuttu territory. Below the Arawhimi confluence, the Congo, which here assumes an almost lacustrine aspect, is joined by the Loi'ka (Itimbiri), and the Mo- Ngala, two other streams descending from the north, but too small to be identified with the AVelle. North and north-west of the Nepoko, Junker followed the curve of the Welle (Makua) to a point within about 110 miles of the Congo ; but he was compelled here to retrace his steps without solving the Welle problem. In this region, however, he found the Welle swollen by the Mbomo with its Shiuko tributary, which may probably be Lupton's Kuta, the Bahr-el-Kuta of the Arabs. Beyond the Mbomo confluence the united stream would appear to continue its westerly course parallel with the Congo, ultimately joining the U-Banghi about 240 miles from the farthest point reached by Junker. The U-Banghi was itself ascended by Grenfell far beyond the probable junction, which however was not noticed by him either because he kept mainly to the right bank, or because the mouth of the Welle was masked by some of the wooded islands abounding in all these great waterways. Beyond the Itimbiri confluence the Congo, ramifying into numerous channels with a total breadth at some points of 12 miles or even more, continues its 91— AF