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Show coverer, and the founder of the great Free State within its basin. . According to Mr. Stanley the Congo is more than 8,000 miles long, and in size and volume the second river of the world, the first being presumably the Amazon. Like the Nile, the Congo has one stretch of uninterrupted navigation 1,000 miles long between Stanley Pool and Stanley Falls. Unfortunately for commerce, however, this magnificent stretch of water is separated sepa-rated from the sea by a series of insurmountable insur-mountable cataracts that compel a portage port-age of 285 miles, or two portages of 85 and 50 miles and many transfers. The largest of all African rivers, and probably prob-ably the most valuable from a commercial commer-cial point of view, more promptly and more emphatically than any of the others forbids the upward.; progress of the steamer. Thomas Stevens in Scribner's. The Wonderful Congo River. For our knowledge of the dimensions and navigable lengths of the Congo, the largest, and, next to the Nile, the longest African river, the world is indebted almost al-most entirely to Mr. Stanley, its dis- |