Conglan Belgian] SEAPORTS ; SHIPPING ; CABLES 71 line of railway from Stanley Pool. Although there are ample docks and landing facilities, and quay accommo dation, 1,657 feet in length , for ocean steamers, the congestion is acute owing to the fact that the railway , which taps an enormous area, is only a single line. The swiftness of the current in the ' Devil's Cauldron ', just below Matadi, makes it difficult for steamers of less than twelve knots to reach the port. An additional port is shortly to be established at Ango Ango, three miles lower down, opposite the Portuguese port of Noki .

In 1913, 168 vessels, of 370,000 tons, were cleared at Banana ; 302 vessels, of 364,000 tons, at Boma ; and 124 vessels, of 198,000 tons, at Matadi. In 1914 the tonnages fell to 310,000, 278,000, and 141,000 re spectively.

(6) Shipping Lines The two chief shipping lines from Europe to the Congo before the war were the Compagnie Belge Maritime du Congo (Antwerp) and the Chargeurs Réunis (Havre) . Some of the vessels of the former line called at Teneriffe and Sierra Leone, accomplishing the voyage in eighteen days. The service of these two companies was so arranged that a mail steamer arrived at Boma every ten days. A monthly service was also supplied by the Elder Dempster Combine ( African Steamship Co. and British and African Steam Navigation Co.) and by the Hamburg -Amerika, Hamburg-Bremer -Afrika, and Woermann lines jointly. Other callers were steamers of the Empreza Nacional and Bromport ( Lever Bros. ) lines .

(c) Cables and Wireless Stations Previous to 1913 cablegrams to Europe or elsewhere had to be sent by boat from Matadi across the river to the Portuguese port and frontier station of Noki,