. Scottish geographical magazine. ) some of the gran-dest cataracts and some ofthe finest scenery in theworld. And it is thisobstacle which the Congorailway has had to turn,along one of the mostdeadly and most desolate regions of Africa. 3. The valley of the Congo River and its mighty tributaries, theUbangi-TJelle, the Kassai, the Lomami, the Aruwimi, each of whichforms a river system by itself, constituting a network of tens ofthousands of miles in length, and form-ing the vast Congoswamps and densetropical forests, withtheir rubber vinesand vegetable wealth. 4. A high plat-eau land, rising g
. Scottish geographical magazine. ) some of the gran-dest cataracts and some ofthe finest scenery in theworld. And it is thisobstacle which the Congorailway has had to turn,along one of the mostdeadly and most desolate regions of Africa. 3. The valley of the Congo River and its mighty tributaries, theUbangi-TJelle, the Kassai, the Lomami, the Aruwimi, each of whichforms a river system by itself, constituting a network of tens ofthousands of miles in length, and form-ing the vast Congoswamps and densetropical forests, withtheir rubber vinesand vegetable wealth. 4. A high plat-eau land, rising gra-dually above theriver system, andconstituting, in theKassai and Katangaand many other dis-tricts, fertile andhealthy territoriesadapted for Euro-pean colonisation. 5. The mountainous Alpine range of the Katanga in the south,which divides the hydrography of the Congo from the basin of theZambesi, and which, with its copper and gold mines, constitutes one ofthe richest mineral repositories of the planet; the chain of the Mitumba. A Bridge on the Old Caravan Route. THE ECONOMIC EXPANSION OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 189 mountains in the east, along the great Central African rift formedby the succession of lakes from the Lake Moero to the Upper Nile; themassif of the Ruwenzori, which reaches an altitude of from 3500 to5500 metres; the plateau of the Xiam-Xiani in the north-east (averagealtitude 700-800 metres). Such being the natural divisions of the Equatorial Congo Empire, itwould be more easy to say what those vast regions do not produce, thanto enumerate what they do produce. It is true that hitherto only twocommodities have formed the staple exports of the State, namely, ivoryand rubber ; but the wealth of rubber which, under careful and providentState supervision, is seemingly inexhaustible, is a very fair indicationof the vegetable wealth of the equatorial forest, and the very fact thatthe two staple articles alone have been sufficient to provide an annualexport of over two m
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
