Towards the middle of the estuary, the distance from shore to shore exceeds 10 miles; but as it approaches the sea the current again contracts, the chief branch being less than 4 miles wide, while the waters on both sides ramify into a thousand tidal channels. At the mouth the distance from point to point is nearly 7 miles, and in some places no less than 1,000 feet deep. Here the Banana approach, nearly 20 feet deep at low water, runs athwart the stream in the direction from north-east to south-west in continuation of two sandy spits, on one side the peninsula of Banana, on the other Shark Point, or Cape Santo-Antonio. On most modern maps the most advanced headland south-west of this point is wrongly marked as the famous Cape Padrão, where Diego Cam, discoverer of the Congo, erected a marble column in 1485 to indicate the possession of this territory by Portugal. Cape Padrão is in fact identical with Shark Point, although the
column has disappeared, having apparently been thrown down by the Dutch in 1645. The fragments, venerated by the natives as fetishes, were recently discovered by M. Schwerin.
As indicated by the form of its mouth, the Congo is continued seawards in a north-westerly direction, being deflected northwards by the marine current from the south. Its influence is felt by seafarers several days before sighting the continent, the water being discoloured for a distance of 270 miles, while snags and tangled masses of vegetation drift with the stream for over 200 miles, and have even been met as far north as Cape Lopez and the island of Annobon. For 40 miles beyond the estuary the water is yellowish, and for 14 miles perfectly fresh on the surface of the sea. Along the Cabinda coast the swell is partly broken by the Congo waters, which for 14 miles beyond Banana Point continue to flow in a marine channel no less than 1,200 feet deep, skirted on either side by
