134 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



splendid mass of fleecy, snow-white foam into an 

 abyss 400 feet in depth. At whatever part one 

 looks, the rays of the sun shining on the descend- 

 ing masses of foam form a double zone of prismatic 

 colours, of whose depth and brilliancy no one who 

 has only seen the comparatively faint tints of an 

 ordinary rainbow can form any conception. Such 

 are the Victoria Falls — one of, if not the^ most 

 transcendently beautiful natural phenomena on this 

 side of Paradise. 



Mr. Garden, who has also seen the Falls of 

 Niagara, considers that, taken all round, the Victoria 

 Falls are superior in grandeur and magnificence, 

 though in the former the volume of water is greater 

 than in any part of the latter ; but comparisons are 

 odious, and, no doubt, each excels in different ways. 

 Anywhere within a hundred yards of the cataract the 

 spray, of course, wets one through in no time, and 

 near the edge it is like standing in a pond. The 

 narrow rent which serves as the river's outlet doubles 

 round and runs for 500 or 600 yards parallel with 

 the chasm, and then again doubles backwards and 

 forwards several times in a zigzag course, as before 

 described. On the point of land thus formed, the 

 ground, from the continuous drenching of the spray, 

 is always damp and boggy, and on it is a thick grove 

 of large trees of a species unknown to me, and, in 

 some parts, of dense underwood composed of clumps 

 of palm-bushes and other shrubs. This damp and 

 shady retreat forms (especially during the hot weather) 

 a favourite resort of elephant and buffalo, besides 

 water-buck, koodoo, impala, etc. The fresh spoor 

 showed us that a herd of buffaloes had not long left 

 before our arrival, and the huge footprints of 

 elephants and hippopotami bore evidence that some 



