Dr. Wolf's little steamer puffed up the big Sankuru River, threading its
way among many islands, and revealing a great new highway and many
unaccustomed sights. One day Dr. Wolf was astounded to see, some ways up
the river, what appeared to be a raging snow-storm. Of course snow never
falls there, but the illusion was perfect. It was caused by myriads of
white butterflies zigzagging through the air. Two or three years later a
black boy named Pitti, who had been taken from his home on this river to
Germany, came rushing to his friends, exclaiming; "Oh, look out of the
window! The air is full of butterflies." It was snowing hard. You see,
the first impressions both of the learned doctor and of the ignorant
little black boy were erroneous, because neither of them was in a
country that he knew very well. You will see on your map that the great
northern bend of the Congo is like a bent bow, and far below it is the
string of the bow--the Sankuru--pieced out at one end by the Kassai
River, which unites it with the Congo, while the other end stretches far
across, almost to the other end of the bow. Dr. Wolf's discovery added
almost 800 miles of navigable waters to the Congo basin, stretching
almost due east to central Africa. Many a boy who loves adventure would
think it a proud honor to add so important a fact to geographic
knowledge, but I wonder how many boys would be willing to pay the great
price that Dr. Wolf and all the pioneer explorers have had to pay for
the discoveries that made them famous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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