I30 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



revelling in an abundance of the fattest and most 

 esteemed portions of the three elephants, danced and 

 sang a qui le mieux ; and, lastly, a few prowling 

 hyaenas, having smelt out the meat that hung in 

 festoons on all the trees around our camp, commenced 

 to serenade us with their dismal, melancholy howls. 

 But at length sleep, " tired nature's sweet restorer," 

 began to steal over us, so, calling to the Kafirs to 

 cease their wild and noisy performances and make up 

 the fires, especially that which, with an eye to the 

 morrow's breakfast, we had lighted over a hole in 

 the ground containing a huge junk of elephant trunk, 

 we wrapped ourselves in our blankets and were soon 

 oblivious of all the cares and troubles of this world. 



At last, on Saturday, June 27, from the top of a 

 high sand-belt, we caught the first distant view of 

 the far-famed Victoria Falls of the Zambesi. Our 

 guide had evidently taken us very much out of our 

 direct course, for, instead of hitting off the river 

 exactly at the falls as we ought to have done, we were 

 now far to the eastward ; but we all felt grateful to 

 him for the mistake, for otherwise not only should 

 we have missed the glorious bird's-eye view of the 

 whole valley of the Zambesi, which we were now 

 enjoying, but also should probably not have examined, 

 as we did on the following day, the remarkable chasm 

 through which the river runs below the falls. From 

 where we stood the coup-d'ail was truly magnificent ; 

 we must have been fully twenty miles distant, but 

 the immense volumes of spray which, like white 

 feathery clouds, rose high into the air from the long, 

 narrow chasm into which the river (more than a mile 

 broad) madly plunged, seemed scarcely a couple of 

 miles off. 



With Mr. Garden's glass we could see, through 



