CONGO, or ZAIRE, a large river of Africa, which falls into the Atlantic Ocean in about the sixth degree of south latitude. From the volume of water which it discharges into the ocean, the probable length of its course, the greater part of which is still unknown, and the rapidity of its current, it is entitled to be ranked amongst the first class of rivers. It was for a length of time surmised that the Niger and the Congo were identically the same river. This opinion, however, has been exploded by the discovery of the termination of the former river by the Messrs Lander. But the source of the latter still remains as a problem to be solved by the enterprise of travellers. The breadth of the Congo at its mouth is about ten or twelve miles; and its depth is extraordinary, no bottom having been found by Captain Tuckey, who sounded it with a line of 113 fathoms. Its breadth at 140 miles from its mouth continues to be from two to three miles. At this point the narrows commence, when the river contracts to from three to five hundred yards in breadth, and so continues for a very considerable distance upwards. The banks are lined with bristling rocks, which in several places shoot in ledges across the bed of the river, and form rapids or cataracts. It is only, however, during the periodical floods that the lowest and most formidable of these deserves the name of cataract. Beyond these mountainous regions the Congo again expands to the breadth of two, three, or even four miles, and flows with a current of from two to three miles an hour. At the place where Captain Tuckey relinquished his journey, which was about 280 miles from Cape Pedron, on the sea-coast, the banks were clothed with luxuriant vegetation. Beyond this limit nothing certain is known of its course; but the natives stated that there was no obstacle to its continued navigation, with the exception of a rapid, which, however, was passable by canoes.