. The River Congo from its mouth to Bólobó; with a general description of the natural history and anthropology of its western basin . bases, and filling up the fore-ground of the high purple-green forest with a blaze oftender peach-like colour, upon which, I should havethought, no European could gaze unmoved. Yet thePortuguese merchants who lived among this lovelinessscarcely regarded it, and laughed at the eagerness withwhich I gathered and painted this capim —this meregrass or reed, as they call it. Clumps of a dwarf palm, Phwnix spinosa, which bearsa just-eatable starveling date, hedge in t
. The River Congo from its mouth to Bólobó; with a general description of the natural history and anthropology of its western basin . bases, and filling up the fore-ground of the high purple-green forest with a blaze oftender peach-like colour, upon which, I should havethought, no European could gaze unmoved. Yet thePortuguese merchants who lived among this lovelinessscarcely regarded it, and laughed at the eagerness withwhich I gathered and painted this capim —this meregrass or reed, as they call it. Clumps of a dwarf palm, Phwnix spinosa, which bearsa just-eatable starveling date, hedge in these beautifulorchids from the wash of the river, and seem a sort ofwater-mark that the tides rarely pass: but the water oftenleaks through the mud and vegetable barrier, and formsinside the ring of dwarf palms many little quiet lagoons,not necessarily unhealthy, for the water is changed andstirred by each recurring tide; and in these lagoonsbordered by orchids aucl tall bushes, with large spatulateleaves, and white shining bracts about their flower-stalks,*by pandanus, by waving oil-palms, and by mangrove trees * TEE LOWER CONGO—BANANA POINT TO VIVL 27 poised on their many feet, and telling out against theshining sky with their lace-like tracery of leaves—in thesequiet stretches of still water are the homes and feeding-grounds of myriad forms of life : of blue land-crabs, whoseburrows riddle the black soil; of always alert and agitated mud-fish, * flapping and flopping through the ooze; oftiny amethystine red-beaked kingfishers; of kingfishersthat are black and white, or large and grey and speckled ;of white egrets, of the brown and stork-like Scopusumbretta; of spur-winged geese; and of all-devouringGypohierax vultures. A rustling in the vegetation, anda large varanus lizard slips into the water; or on sometrampled bank a crocodile lies asleep in the warm sun,with a fixed smirk hanging about his grim muzzle. Theselagoons are places seething with life—lif
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdec, booksubjectnaturalhistory, bookyear1895
