Colonel Bleep/Building an Island Base
Narrator
And now, stand by for adventure!—...three...two...one...—in the exciting story of..."Building an Island Base"!
BUILDING
an
ISLAND
BASE
Narrator
Once Colonel Bleep...and his friends were back on Zero Zero Island, little Squeak...could wait no longer to build a home. In fact, Squeak had already drawn a sketch of the kind of house he dreamed of, with picket fence and a garden for flowers and vegetables. But how can you build a house without the tools of the carpenter's trade?
?
Narrator
You know, a carpenter is an expert in the use of hammers and saws and planes and chisels. But Squeak and Scratch had no tools. However, they did have Colonel Bleep, who brought with him from outer space...futomic energy, the power of the future—stronger, even, than atomic energy. And, so, Bleep threw the "up energizer" switch...and suddenly, there was a beautiful little house for Squeak...with a huge cave underneath for Scratch.
And completely covering the entire island was a gigantic plastic-like dome to protect them from bad weather and insects, and which also would serve as a giant laboratory for Bleep's experiments and research. But, Squeak...and Scratch...could not linger long in their house and cave, because Colonel Bleep...reminded them it was travel-time again, this time to see the Belgian Congo. Here we go!
BELGIAN
CONGO
Narrator
Looking down on the continent of Africa from high in the sky, Bleep...Squeak...and Scratch...see that the Belgian Congo looks something like an ivy leaf. The stem touches the Atlantic Ocean on the west, and the central vein of the leaf is formed by the Congo River, which curves some three thousand miles into the interior and is the only river that crosses the equator twice.
BELGIAN
CONGO
Equator
Narrator
The capital city of Leopoldville is a modern, busy river port, but half of the Belgian Congo is covered by dense equatorial jungle, with a temperature in the 80s almost every day of the year. If Bleep and his friends were to crash...in this land, they would find jungles that are almost useless to man.
Few tropical fruits grow here, and in fact, until recently, the natives lived almost entirely on game they'd snared...or shot with bow and arrow. Today's civilization is moving into the Congo, and the wild animals—antelope, zebra, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and gorilla—are slowly disappearing, except in the game reserves, and the natives are being taught modern farming methods.
The Belgian Congo was first opened to Europeans by Henry Morton Stanley, the American newspaper man—the same Mr. Stanley who said, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume." To most people, the Belgian Congo would not be considered a very pleasant place to live, but it is an interesting place for Bleep...Squeak...and Scratch...to visit.
AMERICAN OPENS
BELGIAN CONGO
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