Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/605

 mainly restricted to the Lower Congo basin. In this region, however, the work is carried on simultaneously by three European powers: the Congo Free State, which claims only the left bank above Manyanga, and the right bank as far aa Noki; France, which is mistress of all the rest of the north side; and Portugal, which rules over the south side from Noki to the coast. i

The shores of Stanley Pool, like the riverain tracts higher up, are inhabited by Ba-Teke tribes, which are here subjected to the direct control of the whites. Nowhere else in the whole Congo basin have more rapid changes been effected than at this point, where converge above the cataracts all the navigable waterways as far as the neighbourhood of Tanganyika. he chief station in this district is Leopoldville, built on a plateau commanding the western extremity of the Pool, and

not far from Ntamo, capital of the southern Ba-Teke. Near the station stand the barracks of the Haussa and Ba-Ngala troops, and the dwellings of the English and American missionaries. But the industrial and commercial activity is centred chiefly at the village of Kinkassa, which serves as the port and dockyard of Leopoldville. Another station, at once religious and agricultural, has been founded at Kimpopo, on a torrent flowing to the eastern extremity of Stanley Pool. The plain stretching south of the lake to the encircling hills is thickly peopled, containing several large towns, such as Kinbanga, Lemba, and Mikunga. Like the Dover Cliffs on the opposite side, these hills, which culminate southwards in the Mense Peak (2,000 feet), consist of a hardened sand of dazzling whiteness terminating in numerous sharp points.